Group think:

Have you ever felt like speaking up in a meeting, classroom, or informal group, but decided against it? One reason may have been shyness. On the other hand, you may have been victim of group think, the phenomenon that occurs when group members become so enamored of seeking concurrence that the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternatives courses of action and the full expression of deviant, minority or unpopular views. It describes deterioration in an individual mental efficiency, reality, testing, and moral judgment as a result of group pressures.

We have all seen the symptoms of the groupthink phenomenon.

1. Group members rationalize any resistance to the assumptions they have made. No matter how strongly the evidence may contradict their basic assumptions; members behave so as to reinforce those assumptions continually.

2. Members apply direct pressures on those who momentarily express doubts about any of the group shared views or who question the validity of arguments supporting the alternative favored by the majority.

3. Members who have doubts or hold differing points of view seek to avoid deviating from what appears to be group consensus by keeping silent about misgivings and even minimizing to themselves the importance of their doubts.

4. There appears to be an illusion of unanimity. If someone doesn’t speak, its assumed that he or she is in full accord. In other words, abstention becomes viewed as a Yes vote.

Groupthink appears to be closely aligned with the conclusion Asch, the expert in behavioral studies, drew in his experiments with a lone dissenter. Individuals who hold a position that is different from that of the dominant majority are under pressure to suppress, with hold, or modify their true feelings and beliefs. As members of a group, we find it more pleasant to be in agreement –to be a positive part of the group than to be a disruptive force, even if disruption is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the groups decisions.