"Evils draw men together" - Aristotle
"Groupthink...occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a de
terioration of “mental efficiency,
reality testing, and moral judgment” Irving L. Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1982) 9.
"The danger is not simply that the presence of like-minded others can reinforce one's own sense
of rectitude and virtuousness far beyond prudence. The mere presence of others is energizing in a
way that can prompt rash action or even mob behavior. Groups also provide a measure of anonymity; they make it easier to entertain the belief that, when plans go awry, someone else can be blamed."
Paul A Kowert, Groupthink or Deadlock: When Do Leaders Learn from Their Advisors?, (Albany: State U. Press, 2002) 2.
"Many of the most misguided decisions have not been made by lone individuals but by groups of people who, despite working together, still managed to make a disastrous decision.
Donelson R. Forsyth, Group Dynamics: A Student's Guide, (Wadsworth, CA: Wadsworth, Cenage Learning, 2010)24.
Too often, MissLed women are too prone to groupthink. Since they tend to have a malleable mindset within a group, they prefer to play it safe, so they conform their thinking to only that which is approved by their friends or family members. As a result of both, they are too often satisfied to think in terms that lead to safe answers, substandard decisions, or the status quo.
Groupthink tends to happen when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic
appraisal of alternatives. At times, it has been proven to be quite dangerous, even deadly.
Formerly, groupthink was mainly the failing of men in power and leadership positions. Now,
given their ascension in both business and governmental leadership, MissLed women have, unsurprisingly, become increasingly
susceptible to this habit. Within a group, the
strong female instinct to tend and befriend can strongly influence their thinking. MissLed women in particular
tend to lack the confidence that is required to dissent or disagree within a group. They are fearful that
any expression of a thought that dissents against the group's consensus puts them at risk for
what most women dread - ridicule, exclusion, or dismissal.
Too often, they'll go along with a questionable decision or
concept due to fear of losing their place in the group and being left behind. Often, they do so due to a longing to belong - to join:
"Joiners don't want the truth. They want their collective delusion to continue. Ignoring legitimate
criticism, enveloping oneself in an echo chamber filled with other pod people, and dehumanizing the opposition all further this end...Joiners insulate themselves from Doubting Thomases by practicing intellectual snobbery - refusing to debate, invoking the authority of science, speaking an insider language unintelligible to the unitiated, and so forth. Joiners don't think. They follow. There is safety in numbers." Daniel J. Flynn, Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Dumb, (NY: Three Rivers Press, 2004) 243.
Their striving for unanimity overrides any thinking that would lead towards a more realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. MissLed women's strong drive for acceptance from others is a strong motivating factor. For them, thinking outside the parameters acceptable to the group can feel uncomfortable, even frightening.
Groups can have profound effects on their ability to reason rationally. In Group think, dissent is strongly
discouraged, and its invaluable role raising concerns about decisions or action is lost:
"Something strange happens when you put people in groups. They take on new roles, form "in group" alliances, get swept
up by extreme stances, and succumb to peer pressure. In a group setting, the reasonableness of our thinking can be
distorted and compromised." Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, (NY: Doubleday, 2008) 150.
What else is lost when MissLed women join in groupthink? Individual initiative, creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking. Indeed,
when engaged in, and enveloped by, groupthink, they begin to think of the group's thoughts
and ideas as their own. Within the group, they have little mental room to think for themselves.
Whether with men, women, or MissLed women, Group Thinking occurs in three Types:
"Type I: Overestimations of the group — its power and morality
1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
2. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
Type II: Closed-mindedness
"We know that preserving the cohesiveness of a group can trump good judgment;
classic work on "group think" explains how clusters of like-minded people can make
bad decisions by ignoring alternative and even dehumanizing
other groups." Carlin Flora, Friendfluence, (NY, Doubleday, 2013) 173.
1. Rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.
2. Irrationally stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak,
evil, biased, spiteful, impotent, or stupid.
"Out-group infrahuminization is a newly investigated phenomenon in which people tend to attribute uniquely human emotions and traits to their in-group and deny their existence in out-groups . It is a form of emotional prejudice."
Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, (NY: Random House, 2007) 312.
Type III: Pressures toward uniformity
1. Self-censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
"The willingness to self-censor is a symptom of groupthink." Dr. Clifton Wilcox,
Groupthink, (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation, 2010) 26.
2. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
"Although the sway of group conformity is incredibly strong, it depends on unanimity for its power." Ori Brafman, Rom
Brafman, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, (NY: Doubleday, 2008) 150.
In fact, MissLed women often overestimate a sense of unanimity with others:
"We frequently overestimate unanimity with others, believing that everyone else thinking and feels exactly like we do.
This fallacy is called the false-consensus effect." Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly, (London: Spectre Books, 2013) 231.
3. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty."
4. Mind guards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information."
Irving L. Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1982) 174-175.
In fact, dissent is quite unwelcome in many groups. With their "mind guards" firmly in charge, few
members dare to speak out, even if the information they have thought of is important:
"Self-deception operates both at the level of the mind and the collective awareness of
the group. To belong to a group of any sort, the tacit price of membership is to agree not to notice one's own feelings of
uneasiness and misgiving, and certainly not to question anything that challenges the group's way of doing things.
The price for the group in this arrangement is that dissent, even healthy dissent, is stifled."
Daniel Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1985) 13-14.
What beliefs and actions lead MissLed women (and misguided men) groupthink?
• The failure to examine sufficient alternatives
• Not being critical of each other's ideas
• The failure to seek expert opinion
• Lack of contingency plans
There are four common, damaging results from group think. Firstly, decisions shaped by groupthink have low probability
of achieving successful outcomes. In fact, groupthink often leads to irrational thinking, choices, and decisions:
"More than fifty years of research suggests that irrational thinking occurs when people
try to reach decisions in groups, and this can lead to a polarization of opinions
and a highly biased assessment of a situation." Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) 212.
Secondly, groupthink can cause MissLed women's thinking to remain within the safe confines of inside the box,
it tends to stifle creativity, and it enable extreme or suboptimal decisions:
"Ask them to come up with new ideas, and people" are more creative away from the crowd." 59 seconds. Richard Wiseman,
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) 111.
"A large body or research now suggests that for more than 70 years, people using GROUP brainstorming may have
been inadvertently stifling, not stimulating, their creative juices. When working together they
aren't as motivated to put in the time and energy to generate great ideas, and so they end up
spending more time thinking inside the box." Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) 111.
"In short, being in a group exaggerates people's opinions, causing them to make a more
extreme decision than they would on their own...the final decision can be extremely risky
or extremely conservative." Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot,
(NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) 212.
Thirdly, groupthink tends to influence MissLed women towards the two failings of dogmatic beliefs and stereotyping others:
"Polarization is not the only phenomenon of 'groupthink'...groups tend to be
more dogmatic, better able to justify irrational actions, more likely to see their
actions as highly moral and more apt to form stereotypical views of outsiders." Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a
Little, Change a Lot, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) 213-214.
Finally, groupthink often results in dangerous levels of conformity:
"In short, groups will tend to reinforce their own views and reject the words of those who
disagree. In this case, members of the group become "conformist to some conformity."
Irving L. Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions
and Fiascoes, (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1982) 5.
In fact, conformist thinking misguides MissLed women to the point they are far too influenced by their family and peers.
Ironically, if they wanted to be unique and valuable, MissLed women would be far better served to be non-conformist
in their thinking:
“Humanity’s most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for
the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance
of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things,
the world would have known little progress, indeed.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
Conformist thinking stems from cognitive dissonance, obedience to authority, familiarity, repeated contact/socializing,
and a diffusion of responsibility. It stems from MissLed women's overly malleable mind. Too often, they think as if
they were a sheep moving with the herd. Not surprisingly, this leads them directly to conformist behaviors, such as
uncritically following certain fads or trends, and purchasing "hot" or "cool" items. All too-commonly, they follow the
herd in their language, fashion, music, or other entertainments such as movies or television. Quite often, they conform largely
to avoid a backlash from their peers:
"Women who live outside the norm of feminine stereotypes or who exhibit
personal qualities of being active, independent, and logical may experience
a backlash by other women. Unfortunately, these binds leave very little room
for a woman to live authentically and express her genuine thoughts and
feelings." Dr. Erika Holiday, Dr. Joan Rosenberg, Mean Girls, Meaner Women:
Understanding Why Women Hurt and Betray Each Other, (NY: Orchid Press, 2009) 89.
Unfortunately for them, conformist thinking tends to limit many MissLed women's potential to mere mediocrity. Admittedly,
it can be quite alluring, as it conformity is associated with these positive emotions:
• Acceptance
• Connection
• Belonging
• Comfort
• Familial bonding
Their actions have the logical result of conformist thinking. Their misperception of being limited by peer pressure misguides
them to feel them must act in accordance to what the group approves. Their chosen conformity often permits them to rationalize
bad behaviors:
"Come on — everybody's doing it." That whispered message, half invitation, half goad, is what most of us think when we hear
the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good - drinking, drugs, casual sex." "Herd Mentality" By Annie Murphy Paul, Apr. 09, 2011
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2061234,00.html#ixzz1zFP2hktz
Fear is behind much of MissLed women's conformity. They are afraid of being shunned, ostracized, ridiculed or shamed
if they dare think- and therefore act or speak - in a manner that displeases the group. As a result, MissLed women tend to conform closely to the
unwritten rules, social norms, values, beliefs, traditions, of any groups they are part of.
In fairness, though, to think in conformity with others certainly has its place. In large part, women tend to conform to give
the useful impression of agreeableness. This helps them both to bond with other women and,
perhaps even more importantly, to impress men (for mating purposes).
WHY DOES GROUP THINKING MATTER?
For too many MissLed women, groupthink is often self-limiting or even self-defeating. Too often, such thinking is
much like a weather vane - bending to the fickle winds of opinion and actions of their group. Within the illusionary safety
of the herd mentality, activity is limited, objectivity is lost, and creativity is severely curtailed.
Therein, MissLed women's minds are not free to think critically. What's lost, in the end, for them, is much truth - about
themselves, and their world.
The final downside to Group thinking's is that it often results in less creative and productive activity by MissLed women
within a group. In fact, the term Social loafing describes the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort (including with thinking)
when they are part of a group. This tendency is pervasive in groups. Because all members of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common
goal, each member of the group contributes less than they would if they were individually responsible. Instead
of assuming responsibility for thinking about certain problems or decisions, MissLed women in groups can tend
to simply assume that one of the other group members will take care of such problem-solving or decision-making.
Indeed, it can be easier to conceal laziness - in thought or action - when working in a group of people who are
working together.
There are 3 main reasons why social loafing occurs:
•People perceive that others in a group are less motivated or less skillful than themselves, because people feel unmotivated when working in a group,
because they think that their contributions will not be evaluated. As a result, they reduce their own output.
•Social loafing may be caused by participants choosing goals that are less ambitious when others were present working
under the assumption that the task will be easier when others are involved. With lower goals, you expect less effort.
•Individuals feel that their own efforts are less closely linked to any potential outcomes in a group setting than when
they are alone.
"Social loafing does not occur solely in physical performance. We slack off mentally, too. For example, in meetings,
the larger the team, the weaker our individual participation." 99.
"Social loafing has interesting implications. In groups, we tend to hold back not only in terms of accountability. Nobody
wants to take the rap for the misdeeds or poor decisions of the whole group." 100.
False Consensus:
"False consensus occurs partly, because, lacking other information,
we impute our knowledge and responses to others...Also, we're more likely
to associate with people who share our attitudes and behaviors, and then to judge the
world from those we know." David G. Myers, Intuition: Its Powers and Perils 97."
"The three most important factors for deindividuation in a group of people are:
- Anonymity, so I can not be found out.
- Diffused responsibility, so I am not responsible for my actions.
- Group size, as a larger group increases the above two factors.
"When you are in a group, you may feel a shared responsibility and so less individual responsibility for your actions. In this way a morally questionable act may seem less personally wrong. You may also feel a strong need to conform to social norms."
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/deindividuation.htm
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Woman's Inhumanity to Woman,
"On the one hand, girls and women are at their relational "best" in a dyad or small all-female
group; on the other hand, that dyad or small group is highly unstable and fraught with tension."
xiii.
"Most women are no more realistic about women than men are. To a woman other women are (supposed to be) Good Fairy Godmothers, and if they are not they may swiftly become their dreaded
Evil Stepmothers." 5.
ARGUMENT:
"Men are taught that it is normal, even desirable, to compete and disagree with each other; when they do so, they do not personalize the argument nor do they think a friendship or working relationship will be jeopardized by a strong difference of opinion. Women do." 9-10.
"Women seek female approval as much as they seek male approval."
- NO CONTRARY THOUGHTS permitted...even to the point of denying current group realities.
- females strive for socially sanctioned speech and behavior
- women oust and ostracize group members who they deem "disloyal."
- "To girls...'belonging' is the most important thing - and in order to belong, each girl must "conform to the group's expectations but not exceeding them." 82.
- MissLed women do not speak up because they do not wish to alienate the others in the group - and because they do not want to look foolish - and because they do not want to look like they are not toeing the party line.
-in the absence of any dissenting views, presumes and creates an atmosphere of assent when actually everybody might actually disapprove
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ABLINE PARADOX:
The Abilene Paradox explains why groups often come up with a solution no-one expressly wants or cares about (a camel is a horse designed by a committee ). Unseen pressure to conform curtails creativity, dissent and singular thought. Effective communication in meetings is about all of those things – dis-agreement, expressing opinions, voicing concerns – and harnessing the energy to create a solution that people want and care about.
Avoid visiting the far away town of Abilene by following these tips for effective communication in business meetings.
The Abilene Paradox explains why MissLed women tend to sometimes do the things that damage the group most, whilst trying to achieve the best for the group.
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"If the communities to which we belong are, in fact, out of touch or provincial, and we conform our beliefs and values to them, we will be making decisions with inadequate data, guided by values inconsistent with our own." Byron Mitchell Roth, John Douglas Mullen, Decision Making: Its Logic and Practice, 25.
"Even highly respected individuals with little to fear from deviation are prone to "go along" with the majority, especially in times of crisis.
The danger here is that the majority may be wrong." 25.
"While individual dissent can sometimes interfere with carrying out actions already decided upon, it is usually invaluable in coming to sound decisions as to what actions should be taken in the first place." 25.
"Dissent has its rewards as well as its risks, especially if the dissenter is correct, with sound reasoning and persistence, turn the group away from faulty actions. It takes times, energy, persistence, and sometimes courage to adopt the minority opinion." 26.
"Very generally we conform because it is prudent to do so. Doing things differently from the way they are generally done involves risk. We also conform so as to avoid group rejection and ridicule, or to obtain admiration." 26.
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