Since childhood, every single thing you have been asked not to do has intrigued you. Why? What makes you want to go where you are specifically told not, or what makes you want to do things which you are forbidden from? DO NOT OPEN, every thriller movie has a similar premise, the entire story depend on the protagonist’s inclination to do the exact opposite of what is instructed, this act of the protagonist might frustrate you but wouldn’t you do the same thing too? This is when the forbidden fruit effect gets to us.
Simply put, ‘the forbidden fruit effect’, is the urge to do something only when it is forbidden. They say strict parents make the most deviant children, and to serve this the Indian Culture has some very common examples not to rank up the other cultures but my familiarity is with the Indian culture. It is an ocean of “log Kya Kahenge”, (what will people say or think about it), and we have sunk into that ideology, as easy as it is to comprehend, so is the fact that we live in a society that chooses our choices.
How many times have we felt the urge to dress up but didn’t because ‘log kya kahenge’, how many times have we done things which are in objection by the elders and got side-eyed views and comments which might be harsh.
How many times have we wanted to visit someplace even after the denial of elders or the times when we wanted to give a verbal slap to the neighbour or the times we dated the wrong person, but we did it, it might have made us happy or we might feel guilty. But we did it anyway because we were forbidden from it and we had the urge to do it. This quality of wide-ranged restrictions provides us Indians with a variety of rules to deviate from, it all depends on our pick. While it is an obvious sight to see a lot of rules will lead to deviance, it is also important to say that some boundaries or rules are important too.
This was how the societal rules are affected by the forbidden fruit effect. Now what about other rules, which have a greater logical background, underage drinking has been a widespread issue now, the participation in views or inaction of underage adult content has been a haystack of an issue.
It is hence, well accepted that restrictions increase the likelihood. now the question which airs is, why do we have to do that one specific thing which is prohibited or banned? There can be plenty of answers to it, the most simple and understandable one being that restrictions attack the sense of freedom of a person’s mind and make them feel barred, which makes them want to do things that are often unacceptable by others. As much as this could be debatable, I would like to end this here, but universally speaking the forbidden fruit might appeal to all!
Lavanya
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