“Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation.” (Source)
“Three conditions which can be used as clear groupthink warnings:
- Directive leadership: where the group leader directs the group and its discussions.
- Group homogeneity: where the group know each other, come from the same social background, and share the same ideology.
- Group isolation: where the group does not have exposure [to] outside information which could be used to help reach a more balanced decision.” (Source)
“Symptoms of groupthink...:
- Illusions of Invulnerability - The group begins to believe it’s own hype and starts to think it always makes the right decisions – they can do no wrong.
- Rationalization of Warnings - The group convinces itself that despite evidence or warnings to the contrary it is making the right decision...
- Complacency - After reaping the rewards of making many correct decisions the group begins to overlook the negatives...
- Stereotyping - Those who are opposed to the group are pigeonholed as heretics, non-believers, or just plain stupid.
- Loyalty Pressure - Direct pressure is place on any team member who raises a contrary opinion, with typically the entire group openly calling the team member disloyal or fickle.
- Self-Censorship - Individuals refrain from airing any private concerns they may have for fear of ridicule...
- Illusion of Unanimity - If asked, “does everyone agree with this decision?”, and nobody speaks up, then the decision is understood to have been made unanimously. In essence, silence is regarded as compliance.
- Mind-guards - The group contains self-appointed members who protect the group from conflicting opinions from both inside and outside of the group.” (Source)
- Challenger Space Shuttle disaster - “Engineers of the space shuttle knew about some faulty parts months before takeoff, but they did not want negative press so they pushed ahead with the launch anyway.”
- Bay of Pigs Invasion - “President Kennedy made a decision and the people around him supported it despite their own concerns.”
- “Seven social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil: (1) Mindlessly taking the first small step (2) Dehumanization of others (3) De-individuation of self (anonymity) (4) Diffusion of personal responsibility (5) Blind obedience to authority (6) Uncritical conformity to group norms (7) The evil of omission and not commission (passive tolerance of evil through inaction)” ~ Dr. Phil Zombardo
- "The people of Nebraska are for free silver, therefore I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later." ~ William Jennings Bryan
- “Committees rarely take high-risk positions for which the members can be criticized. They rarely embrace idiosyncratic opinions. They rarely capture the most insightful member’s uniqueness, as expressed in a lone non-conformist viewpoint.” ~ Howard Marks
- “When an approach becomes too well accepted, the widespread reliance on it becomes a source of danger.” ~ Howard Marks
- “Being in a group does not stimulate independent reasoning but rather the intense desire to belong.” ~ Robert Greene
- “An array of judgments is welcome proof that the people around the table are actually thinking for themselves and offering their unique perspectives.” ~ Philip Tetlock
- Scenario Analysis - Illuminate potential outcomes by thoughtfully linking discrete assumptions into specific scenarios.
- Devil’s Advocate - “Someone, given a certain point of view, takes a position they do not necessarily agree with (or simply an alternative position from the accepted norm), for the sake of debate or to explore the thought further using a valid reasoning that both disagrees with the subject at hand and proves their own point valid.”
- Six Thinking Hats - “Look at problems from different perspectives, but one at a time.”
- Filter Bubble - Effective isolation within a cultural or ideological bubble, driven by (often invisible) algorithms that dictate the informational environment, separating the user from disagreeing or disconfirming data, analysis, and conclusions.
- Tribalism - People have an innate instinct to think or behave in ways that prioritize loyalty to their social group above everything else.
- Relativity - One’s perspective fundamentally alters what one sees, so it is nigh impossible to objectively observe a system that one is a part of.
- Confirmation Bias - Humans tend to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in support of existing beliefs.
- Inertia - When no forces act upon an object, it will keep moving on the same path at the same speed.
- Cognitive Biases - Humans have innate tendencies that distort their thinking, leading to predictable departures from rationality and sound judgment.
- Social Proof - The more people approve of an idea, the more it seems true.
- Pluralistic Ignorance - “Phenomenon where a group goes along with a norm, even though all of the group members secretly hate it, because each mistakenly believes that the others approve of it.”
- Abilene Paradox - “A group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of many or all of the individuals in the group. It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and, therefore, does not raise objections.”
- Emotional Contagion - “The phenomenon of having one person's emotions and related behaviors directly trigger similar emotions and behaviors in other people.”
- Brandolini's Law - “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.”
- Hebb's Law - "Neurons that fire together wire together."
- Muller’s Ratchet - “In the absence of variety, bad ideas tend to stick around, which is also exactly what happens in closed societies and large corporations.”
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