Why We Are Still Stuck in Groupthink
The Weekly Special Prompt — Groupthink
The term ‘Groupthink’ comes from 1984 by George Orwell and like all things Orwellian, has a subtle message that needs layers to be peeled.
To know the impact of groupthink on decision-making, you don’t even need to lookup papers on Google Scholar. The Wikipedia page is enough to give you the information. In fact, all the studies that don’t corroborate the original findings make for an interesting read. There are a few new models that show that the assumed effect on decision-making doesn’t hold true.
I’d like to look at groupthink at a more granular level.
I grew up in a military family. We moved houses every two to three years. We lived in different states in a country like India where the language changes every few kilometers. Every state has its own culture, norms, food, and dressing. Living in cantonment areas, you never knew where your neighbours were coming from; until you met them. Diversity was in every part of our lives.
You’d think we were shielded from groupthink. Wrong!
Groupthink starts at a very micro level. Our family had rules we needed to conform to. A whole ton of Hindu festivals were celebrated in a particular way around the year (if you have any idea about the number of Gods in Hinduism, then you know what that entailed). We only ate vegetarian food. Alcohol was not to be consumed. Forget a conversation, and even the thought of pre-marital sex would make my parents apoplectic. Ablutions were a morning ritual — they were unaware of the Freudian effects of toilet training. There were ‘other’ religions and people from ‘other’ socio-cultural-economic backgrounds who were not like us. To interact with them was polite and necessary but they weren’t us — they were outsiders. Seeds of groupthink.
Within the military establishments in all cities, there is conformity. Houses look alike — they have the same layout and paint scheme. It’s decided centrally and executed by an organisation that is centralised. Every block has its own tiny park. There are central schools with exactly the same curricula and textbooks across the country. There are the usual amenities like an A&E (ER in the US, Medical Inspection Room in India), Officers’ Institute, library, swimming pool, and various sports facilities. When you move from one city to another, the transition is seamless. Message — groupthink.
Even though cities and states change, everyone around you knows that anyone outside your barricaded area is a ‘civilian’. They’re different from you. They don’t talk like you do; walk like you do; do like you do. Differences are to be appreciated but from your side of the fence. Not by interacting with the other side. Reinforced idea — groupthink.
All you have to do is replace India with the country you live in. Think of states as counties and states of your own. Think of southern versus northern. Think countryside versus city. Think condos versus housing projects. We are living the same story in our own parts of the world.
We want to belong. Normative influence is one of the reasons people conform to the norms presented to them. In other words, we don’t want to be rejected.
If we can’t belong to the popular crowd or the jocks, we join the nerds. We make career choices based on trends. We marry similar people in line with our confirmation bias. Dan Ariely, in his popular book, Predictably Irrational, has a wonderful example of conforming. The idea presented is that when a group of people orders food at the table, the only person with free choice is the one going first. Thereafter, people order to either conform or to deliberately stand out — even if they want to eat what everyone else is eating.
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness
And for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better
George Orwell, 1984
In the midst of all this conformity, we want to express our individuality. So sometimes, we play the role of a rebel. We speak out against patriarchy and create feminism. We form groups to protect the planet. We start a movement against an injustice. We rebel against the suppression of minorities. We even rebel against society’s norms through our dressing. We fight for equality.
But are we rebelling, really? Aren’t we conforming to the larger trends? Aren’t the Kardashians telling us what to wear? Isn’t social media telling us what to do? Where to travel, what to read or watch? Isn’t that another form of conforming? Aren’t we simply shifting from one way of thinking to another? With the world having become a global village, the lines are too blurred to know if we are going down the rabbit hole of groupthink or going away from it.
Perhaps the Dunning-Kruger Effect describes best our inability to recognise that we are merely changing groups; not moving away from groupthink.
What groupthink does is create separation. To quote from one of my favourite bands, Pink Floyd, it creates “Us and Them”.
We think we are marginalized. We think we are better than them. We think we are suffering. We think we are dealing with something they won’t understand. We think our beliefs are the only true thing.
If we are to realise our true human potential, we must see our shared common humanity. That is the kind of groupthink we can use more of in our lives.
