GROUPTHINK: Bête Noir et Rouge

Groupthink happens when emotional orientation hijacks task one, and the desire to get along beats the desire to make a sound judgment and decide based on the best information available.

Groupthink is a child (and a sibling) of cohesion and is frequent in groups with high “team spirit.”

For practical purposes, we can divide groupthink into positive and negative. Positive groupthink comes from the abundance of trust in one another and the group’s goal. Negative groupthink is a case of herding, i.e., people do not or cannot exert intellectual or volitional effort and go along with the solution that helps them avoid thinking.

Both collectively distort reality, yet both might be necessary to achieve group endpoints.

Thus, while groupthink has negative connotations, much will depend on the desired endpoint and context. For instance, a group with a collective delusion of being on The Side of Light can better promote the group’s goals, whatever they might be. We will proclaim the group as selfless heroes if we share the side and respect the endpoint.

{THE DICHOTOMY, COHESION, INFORMATION ASYMMETRY, ENDPOINT TIERS, GROUP’S GOAL MIX}