Groupthink: The Orgasm That Was Not Part 1

Here’s a little theory I picked up in my university course in Organizational Behaviour. Turns out, funny things happen when humans are in groups.

(Actually, when you think about it, most of the horrible things in history happened because certain humans were in a group: from watching blood sports in the Coliseum, to the Salem Witch Hunts, to the Holocaust.)

Just like the Borg who could only speak in one collective voice (except the Queen, of course), group members try to reach consensus, even at the cost of disregarding reality. It’s called Groupthink.

In other words, everybody cares too much about not rocking the boat and too little about whether the boat is heading towards a waterfall.

Everyone in the group convinces themselves, and each other, that there is nothing wrong with their concept/assumptions/decisions, even though the flaws are blatantly obvious. It’s like a group of amateur stamp collectors who talk and talk until they are convinced that they’re just as good as the guys on the Antique Road Show.

How does this apply to relationships? I’ll show you how in my next post!