Share another example of Groupthink in action that you know from history, personal experience or observation. Because we are social beings, we are all prone to Groupthink. What might we do to prevent becoming prey to the power of Groupthink?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
ARE 3 HEADS REALLY BETTER THAN 1? Blog 9
Share another example of Groupthink in action that you know from history, personal experience or observation. Because we are social beings, we are all prone to Groupthink. What might we do to prevent becoming prey to the power of Groupthink?
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I would agree with the argument some would make about Trip and his buddies falling victims to "groupthink".
ReplyDeleteI remember when I went to middle school in Dallas. Groupthink was everywhere. It was easily seen by looking around the cafeteria at all of the different cliques. There were the goths that believed in doing things and dressing a certain way, the preps who had their own way of doing things and dressing a specific a style, the jocks, the nerds, etc.
I believe that in order to avoid becoming a prey to the power of Groupthink, we must remember that we are individuals, and that we are social beings so we can socialize with different types of people. In high school, I floated around everywhere. I could walk in and sit at a bunch of different tables because I talked to and was cool with a lot of different types of people/groups.
A couple examples of group think that is negative would be like the jim jones cult and like hitler brainwashing the nazi's. These people were no longer individuals. The only way to not fall prey to groupthink is to just maintain your individuality, to not limit yourself to one group. Be well rounded.
ReplyDeleteAn example of Groupthink I can think of is whenever a sports team may lose people in the streets start rioting and making dumb decisions. Since all of the home crowd in the stadium like the same team they will all most likely join in on the crazy rioting outside because their team lost.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you cant avoid the decisions made but its always good to calm down and think things through before you do them.
ALICE'S POST:
ReplyDeleteAnother description, as it applies to education and group projects, is that "Groupthink is a process of gradualism that seeks to gently merge the followers into a pack with leaders, the hope being that the leaders will pull up those who typically reside on the low end of the motivation and achievement scale."
I was involved in a group project. We had to get out an enormous amount of work, we had a firm deadline. There was no way we could accomplish the task in the normal fashion. We had some people with very weak skills and a few strong players.
How to get this done?
We had a meeting and decided what each person’s strong points were and their weaknesses, as far as getting the work done. I got a commitment from each person, one on one. Luckily I had a boss that didn’t interfere with me; he just wanted the work to get done, period.
We segmented the work process, we worked out a schedule, who did the calculations, who did the imputing, who took the calls, also, who went out and picked up lunch, made runs to the break room, while the rest of us kept working. We were all part of the TEAM, all important to getting this task done. Each person’s part was critical, and we all knew it. Each person was extremely necessary to us, we all helped each other.
This was our priority. We were focused on one thing. There were no slackers, if you were tired, well just look around, everybody else was working..hustle. We took liberties that you normally wouldn’t see in an office environment, while we continued to work, it made the work bearable.
Well we made the deadline.
Boss happy.
From the "Tomnado"
ReplyDeletethroupgink
in large groups, people tend to mirror their surroundings. im not sure if it was this class that was talking about it or not, but they did an experiment where people would stand backwards in the elevator, the newcomers would also stand backwards even though it was totally strange to them. all the individual wants is to be loved and accepted and the easiest way of doing that is going with the crowd. we see that in religions, cliques, elevators, pretty much anywhere there are humans. all your actions are subject (and object) of those around you, if youre the only one standing backwards in an elevator, people are going to look at you funny, but is it really that strange? feelings are contagious, as are notions, actions, and anything else that is subject to scrutiny. groupthink isnt really productive unless youre a cult leader, so think for yourself.
-"Tiss Toss" Shipman
My best example is the "science" behind global warming.
ReplyDeleteRead the climategate emails.