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In a broader spectrum, an important political topic may arise in your community in which everyone seems to agree on one side of the argument. You, however, may feel another way, but decide to keep your opinions to yourself. Again, there may be others who are doing the same exact thing and because of that, the other side of the argument is never mentioned. While the people who want to argue against the common view could have very strong points, these points are never brought to light. Things like this could even happen on an even broader scale for all we know.
I just find it interesting that a perfectly viable opinion may never be heard simply because of a decision we make to avoid embarrassment. Groupthink could potentially be a major inhibitor of civic engagement and prevent many people from being the "good" citizens that they are obligated to be. Can you think of any instances where groupthink may have caused a group project or something of that sort to be worse off? I'm sure we have all probably experienced this in one way or another, even if we did not realize it.
More and more every day, people opinions are criticized and are disencouraged to voice their ideas and thoughts. The rise in technology for communication has also probably contributed to this shift in communication acceptance. I believe our text discusses this problem early on, and when I read it i experienced somewhat of an "aha" moment and realized that it was so true. The problem you bring up of the "groupthink" is only hurting our society and stifling speech. If someone has something to say, they should not be so afraid of their idea getting shut down that they do not want to say it. You bring up the example of someone taking a test and needing more time. I can even say that I am a bit guilty of this. All things considered, who wants to be that one person who hasn't finished their exam. On the other hand, maybe you were just taking your time, and you may have all the right too. If you have the entire class period to complete an assignment, you should be entitled too. You don't even want to get me started on group projects. Most group projects always fail and turn into an individual project represented for the group. Group projects never work and although they may encourage socialization and interaction, they are never fair.
ReplyDeleteGroupthink is definitely something I have experience with, although I didn't know that there was an actual term for the phenomenon. So many times, when doing a class project, or when collaborating with a group of people for another reason, I have held my tongue because I don't think what I have to say will be received well by the group. This is especially prevalent in the political sphere, where individuals within Congress or other government positions, will not voice their true beliefs because they believe that it will not be received well by either their constituents or other people within the government. For instance, no one wants to hear about raising taxes, so people do their best not to talk about it. The same thing is true with controversial social issues, such as abortion or LGBT rights. It's a serious problem, not just in our political system, but within everyday life as well.
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