Jessai Flores

You may have seen groups in the past few days leap-frogging over each other, being led blindfolded around campus or running up the Lanman-Wright stairs chanting someone’s name. The question arises: why? Why do students do these rituals at all, let alone in public? 

The psychology behind such initiations has been thoroughly researched, with these rituals acting as an official acceptance into a group that humans naturally desire.

“It’s not enough just to be here [at Yale] with everybody else,” John Bargh, Yale professor of psychology and cognitive science, said. “You also have to have something that separates you and makes you a little unique and different, too. And I think that’s the lure.”

People naturally desire to be included in a group. Bargh’s Introduction to Social Psychology class teaches this as social identity theory, which aims to understand why individuals are interested in group identities and the meaning of groups to humans.

Social identity theory explains that group belonging provides a unique feeling that can be described as “exclusive inclusion” — inclusion in something special.

According to Bargh, this is founded on the “twin pressures of sharing an identity, and at the same time, we want to be a little different and a little unique.”

Social identity theory therefore explains that the shared identity of ‘Yalie’ is too broad — everyone on campus shares this label. The sense of belonging to Yale isn’t as strong on campus as it would be if three Yalies met at a bar in Alaska. There, being a Yalie would be a unique group identity compared to everyone else. 

Being part of a group that has some degree of exclusivity makes people feel both included and special. Therefore, students join societies, sports groups and Greek Life — these provide a group identity while remaining exclusive.

Initiations deepen loyalty and commitment to the group. This is due to cognitive dissonance — the focus of much of Bargh’s work — the phenomenon of behaving in ways that don’t align with your beliefs. 

However, some students told the News they found rushing and initiation processes overwhelming and felt guilt-tripped.

To reconcile such contradicting attitudes to initiation practices, individuals often magnify their desire to be a part of a certain group to justify the tasks they are doing. In this way, loyalty and commitment to the group is enhanced.

“If you put up with whatever it was and now you’re on the other side of it, well, then you really must have wanted to be a member of this group,” Bargh explained. “Why else would you have gone through this initiation?” 

Initiations used to focus on humiliation to deepen loyalty and commitment — think hazing — where going through embarrassing or painful tasks deepened a student’s commitment to the group. Bargh explained that psychologically, the more extreme the initiation, the more the individual will believe that they want to be part of the group. 

Extreme initiations aren’t necessary

Yale has a difficult history with these extreme initiation rituals. Yet, not all initiations push Yale’s hazing and initiation rules of no humiliation or alcohol. 

The students the News spoke to seem to enjoy their initiations and wish to remain a part of the group for fun rather than because they feel forced.

“Tap night was very fun, they had first sent me a very cryptic email,” Sam Vargas ’28, a member of the Mixed Company Of Yale a cappella group, said. “They handed me a huge trophy-looking thing filled with a mystery liquid, and then I had to spin it on my head.” 

Vargas said that the mystery liquid was, in fact, Gatorade. Another a cappella member confirmed that it was announced that everyone had to be 21 or over to drink alcohol.

Bargh believes that severe initiations are not necessary for people to bond in student groups “when they want to be in them anyway.”

He told the News that when positive experiences are shared amongst peers, the good feelings are felt more intensely. 

Students initiated into a cappella groups agreed with this, and told the News that they could see how easily societies become family-like in their closeness. This is partly thanks to all the time they spend together, with events such as out-of-state retreats.

“It was special and cool to be finally introduced to a big group,” Nate Stein ’28, member of Yale Glee Club and The Spizzwinks, said.

His initiation involved a similar situation to Vargas — a chalice full of Sprite, singing and pizza in the Branford College courtyard. 

Some initiation rituals have now become a social experience, helping Yalies form close friendships rather than scarring students or subjecting them to humiliating drinking challenges.

The legal drinking age in Connecticut is 21.