Group Think and Band Wagon Effect are often confused… Groupthink leverages individuals into consensus by replacing critical thinking with hasty irrational decision-making that’s excused. Adopting naïveté, Bandwagon effect describes throwing ourselves into whatever’s trending without a clue, because it’s the popular thing to do.
Groupthink is a simmering collection of individuals, energized by a dominant voice, all sharing social capital of identity, norms, values, and choice. Member willingness to offer conflicting opinion is co-ercively discouraged, even when Groupthink decisions vary with agendas and directions embraced. Seamless coordination, coupled with emotional currency hold greater worth than any form of fairness placed. While Groupthink varies in purpose enthusiasm for indentured consensus is shared, nurturing ethical, moral, and integrity blindness. Risk-taking and irresponsible judgments are standard groupthink behaviors leaving accountability absent for collateral messes and awareness abysses for delivering kindness.
Creativity, calm debate, and independent outside thought are thwarted by Groupthink decisions and ideologies leaving it to outsiders, for psychological and sociological evaluation to be sought. Psychological inspection unmasks motivations, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and thresholds all individual behavior hallmarks.
While recognizing… peer pressure, obedience, and persuasion are sociological influences that provide additional group assessment benchmarks. Skilled psychological and sociological mining exposes groupthink accelerators including domination by a dictatorial organizer or oligarchical few time pressure sources inducing fear, anxiety, and stress external initiators of agitating insults and criticisms, and cohesive messages that constrain choice on anything new. Rationale reflection reasons, these uncovered elements produce an illusion of group invulnerability while cementing extreme confidence and justification in inflammatory ideology.
When it comes to groupthink coerced consensus is an oxymoron for censorship of individual expression, and group “mind guarding” fostering critical thinking suppression. It’s a funny feeling to know, respectfully supporting an individual’s right to agree to DISAGREE is a gift that groupthink ignores honoring and nurturing to any healthful DEGREE.
Copyright 2018 Doc X MD and Audra RN Funny Feelings©