Blind Following: Why You Follow Leaders Without Question10 min read

Our world has often divided itself into two major archetypes: leaders and followers.

The leaders come up with ideas, take charge, and guide others. And the followers stand behind them, supporting their ideas, sometimes building a cult-like allegiance, so strongly that they’ll do whatever it takes to spread and defend their cherished beliefs.

This isn’t just something you see on a big scale, like in politics, religion or global movements. It happens in everyday life, right in your family, your community, and especially on social media.

Most parents often pass down their beliefs and values, expecting their children to accept them without question, often framing them as absolute truths. In communities, influential figures like the respected elders or local personalities, shape how people think, vote, and even plan their lives. 

And then there’s social media: the digital coliseum where trends are born, movements are amplified, and opinions are shaped, liked, and reshared at the speed of lightning flash.

This leader-follower dynamic isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s simply functional — the order of human interaction and actions. 

But the big elephant trumpeting in the room: are you a mindless follower or an independent thinker?

In this piece, we’ll explore why you might feel the urge to follow authorities hardly with a second thought. By understanding these instincts, you can start recognising them in your own life, and break the pattern when need be to make better, conscious decisions.

Why You May Follow Authorities Without Questioning

Authorities are usually institutions or people with overwhelming power or influence. They exist in every part of our lives; leaders in politics, entrepreneurs in business, celebrities in entertainment, scholars in academics,  gurus in religion and even parents in family.

But at their core, they’re just people with flesh and blood — like everyone you see every day. Yet, we’re instinctively drawn to follow them.  

Why? 

The Evolutionary Reason

Humans, like most mammals, evolved in small bands or packs, where survival was about fighting off hunger, harsh weather, and deadly predators and depended on unity. And more often with unity comes the need for a leader.

We can see this in wolf packs, lion prides, and even ant colonies. Even though eons of years of evolution have made us more intelligent and reasonable, our genetic blueprint hasn’t changed much. 

Today, we still need leaders and followers because our survival depends on it. But survival has changed. It’s no longer about escaping the ruins of the wild; it’s about staying safe from things like economic problems, cyberattacks, and global conflicts. Here, leaders try to create systems to produce and share food and try to fix the unfairness that keeps people from eating each other. They guide us toward progress in areas like technology, and civility.

But most times we rally behind leaders and groups even when not necessary. Somehow, we lose sight of this and worry about smaller things. We also stress over not keeping up with trends, or being left out being the crowd. Deep down, we’re so afraid of what people will say if we don’t do things their way – afraid that we would lose their friendship, and validation or be left alone to face the uncertainty of life—we fear this like we feared being stranded in the wild with no one to turn to.

So, we conform. Like a chameleon, we blend into the colours of obedience and pretence, hoping to feel safe and accepted. But what we fail to realise is that while we’re busy camouflaging ourselves, we lose our true identity, leaving us vulnerable to manipulation, exploitation, and the trap of never moving forward.

The Social Reason

It’s hard to resist the temptation of admiring (sometimes to the point of worship) those who seem to possess qualities we lack (or struggle to wield). Maybe it’s their extraordinary good looks, their magnetic personality, or the way they speak with such eloquence and poise, almost as if they’re Alpha Humans. This phenomenon is often linked to what’s called a charismatic personality.

The term “charismatic” comes from the Greek word “charisma”. It is historically associated with Prophets and even Christ himself. Prophets and Saints often radiate a presence that commands attention, with the way they move with grace, speak with smooth confidence, and seem effortlessly in control of the universe itself. While this influence has deep religious roots, it isn’t limited to spiritual figures.

Today, the charm of the charismatic is everywhere. People are eager to follow anyone who seems to have a sense of purpose, and who appears confident, loved, or validated by the majority. Social media amplifies this effect. It takes only a few minutes for someone like Elon Musk to get thousands of retweets on X. The accounts with the most likes or followers attract even more, not because people truly understand or connect with them on a deeper level, but simply because “everyone else seems to, so why not?”

This collective admiration can spiral into unhealthy dynamics: It often fuels groupthink and fosters communities that feel cult-like—ranging from misogynistic communities that always pop up on my Facebook feeds to movements opposing the LGBTQ+ community. The consequences of this desperate need to follow and to belong to a tribe can be far-reaching, resulting in division, hatred and degenerative ideologies.

The Apathy Reason

Many people don’t want to take full responsibility for their actions. They find comfort in being told what to do, especially by a figurehead. Because it’s much easier to justify ignorance or questionable behaviour when it’s backed by authority. After all, if Papa said it, it must be right; plus, they can always shift the blame of a bad outcome to the figurehead.

Here is a practical example.

In the 1960s, social psychologist Stanley Milgram did a study on obedience. He chose forty male volunteers to participate in what they believed was a study on how punishment affects learning. Each participant was assigned the role of “teacher” and instructed to help another “subject” (actually Milgram’s accomplice) as the learner. When the learner made a mistake, the teacher was told to administer an electric shock, increasing the voltage with each mistake until it reached a dangerous level.

What was shocking was how easily these teachers followed orders, even as the learner showed visible signs of pain (which was, of course, staged). Despite the discomfort, most participants obeyed the instructions and kept administering more and more electric shocks (without remorse).

Milgram’s experiment revealed that most people have a strong inclination to obey authority figures, even when they know their actions are questionable. It proved that it’s far easier for most people to follow than to question authority, challenge commands, or think critically about better ways to act. Independent thinkers are scarce. Because to be able to think for yourself demands effort and courage—qualities that not everyone is willing to muster.

The Personal Historical Reason

Who you are today is the summation of your days before. What this means is that most of your experiences from the past shape your worldview and how you interact with the world today.  

Take the boy who suffered bullying as a child or the girl who was sexually and emotionally abused as a teenager. Due to the powerlessness in the face of the abuse, they tend to learn to submit as a way to reduce the punishment. Sadly, this submission often requires their minds to comply with the demands of their oppressors.   

If they don’t heal, it grows with them into adulthood. And this is where you often see an adult man still acting like a boy, desperate for validation and approval, or an adult woman too afraid to speak up for herself, fearful of consequences. Like their childhood oppressors, they dread, worship, and comply with anyone who seems to be in a place of power or authority and do not dare question them.

The Value of Independent Thinking: The Fear She Had, The Choice I Made

The year before I entered university, my mother found me reading a book titled The Voyage of Discovery: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy by William F. Lawhead.

I could tell she was proud that her son now knows how to read and enjoys it, but her concern was obvious too. She feared I was reading too much; reading in a way that might make me backslide from my Christian faith, all because of the kind of books I was getting into. But, I couldn’t care less, cause I was tired of the confusion, contradictions, and assumptions and I wanted to find the truth for myself. 

She urged me to stay away from the philosophical ideas I’d encounter at school because she was worried they would taint my beliefs. I listened to her, but not in the way she expected.

What I found in school was that the majority of the teaching didn’t encourage independent thought. Instead, it pushed you to accept whatever authorities said was true. Even in philosophy classes, which should have been about critical thinking, the aim was to mould you into clones of the professors’ cherished ideas.

The lesson was clear: if you don’t actively choose to think for yourself, the world will make that decision for you. And often, the world’s choice leads to compliance, dissatisfaction, and frustration.

The only way to break free is to start questioning ideas before you accept them.

Engage in conversations where the goal isn’t to win or be right but to open up your mind and sharpen your perspective on the world.

Read so much that when you come across books you will see reasons to disagree with ideas, not because you think you know everything, but because you’ve encountered better counter-arguments.

Stop following the crowd. 

Think for yourself.

Conclusion: Your Mind Is Your Most Valuable Asset

There’s a profound difference between conscious following and blind followership. The former comes from understanding and choice; and the latter from fear and mental laziness.

The path to independent thinking isn’t about rejecting all authority or becoming a lone wolf (something I’ve been in the past). It’s about having the courage to stop, think, and make your own choices. It’s about knowing that real growth happens in the tricky space between simply agreeing and carefully questioning.

At different points in our lives, we are to sit and take a moment to examine our own lives. 

• How many of your beliefs are truly yours?
• How many are simply echoes of authorities you’ve never questioned? 
• When was the last time you challenged an idea that everyone around you accepted as gospel?

So the next time you feel that pull to follow without question whether it’s a charismatic leader, a viral social media post, or even a deeply held family belief, remember: your mind is yours to cultivate. 

In a world that’s increasingly eager to tell you what to think, the ability to think for yourself might just be your most valuable asset.

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