Culture: The Big External Influence 41
the typical would group with the super-typical. If this is not an option,
they may fragment within their own group into other microcultures.
The typical admire and even emulate the super-typical in the hope
of gaining their approval. The sub-typical hope to become typical.
Consider this example before you dismiss this view as too sim-
plistic. In the early 1970s, a researcher from the State University of
New York (SUNY) interviewed children of migrant farm workers.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” she asked. When
encouraged to lift up their imaginations and hopes, most of the kids
said, “Crew foreman.” Very few named professions, such as a
doctor or lawyer.
Our primate cousins behave this way. The super-typical com-
prise the ruling class of chimps. The alpha-male establishes a peck-
ing order in which he is king. All others jockey for position. The
pack includes the super-typical, alpha-male and female, the masses,
and the sub-typical, but the last group is barely part of the pack.
Humankind repeats this model on different scales.
Do we emulate the super-typical in our subculture? Look around
you at your workplace. Do you emulate the behavior of the alpha-
female or male in hope of approval? Does the latest trend started
by super-typical Celebrity X spark spin-offs in the population? Even
if you think you are immune, would you ever comment on a fact
related to a celebrity, for example, that Britney Spears was caught
driving with her baby on her lap? Celebrity watching has grown
into a billion-dollar industry, serving the intellectual curiosity of a
nation of pop culture geniuses. How typical.