Every college student, and most everyone else has been in a situation where they were in a group working on a project and tried to make a decision. Unfortunately most of the time the group doesn't always make the best choice in this decision making endeavor. According to Ahlflinger and Esser (2001) this is likely do to groupthink, and is influenced by the leadership of the group. They found that groups with leaders that promoted thier own ideas where more likely to fall prey to groupthink than groups with leaders that did not promote thier own ideas. All to often I have fallen prey to the concept of groupthink while working on group projects in school, liekly do to the fact that when someone would take charge of the group and suggest ideas the confidence with which they suggested the ideas would make me, as well as the other members of the group feel that they knew the material well and could be trusted. Although they did sometimes in fact know the materinal at other times they did not, and we would suffer the consequences of falling prey to groupthink. The most entertaining instance of falling prey to group think however happened one afternoon when I was still in junior high. Me and a few of my friends had been building a small boat, and a great deal of decisions had to be made. the most important of which was adding boyancy. The leader of our ragtag group, my freinds older brother, had suggested that as long as we sealed the boat well that we would not need any added boyancy. Since he was the oldest, and had a fair understanding of the way boats worked we trusted him and finished the boat with no added boyant material, which would have been a layer of foam. After the boat was finished we took it to the creek near our houses and decided to test it. We pushed the boat into the creek and it was water tight, there were no leaks. Soon after my friend and his brother got into the boat, and just as I was about to the edge of the boat dropped under the water and both my friend and his brother were drenched from the knees down. So although I did not suffer the concequences for falling prey to group think I did witness them first hand and was spared only due to the fact that I had moved a little slower.
Ahflinger, N. R., Esser, J. K. (2001). Testing the groupthink model: Effects of promotional leadership and conformity predisposition. Social Behavior and Personality, 29, 31-42.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
You give a really creative example of groupthink, and I can definitely see how the group influenced each other to make a poor decision about your boat-building. I have also gotten caught up in groupthink, and this usually leads to impulsive decisions. I have never sunk a boat, but I have definitely found myself getting caught up in the mindset of the group as a collective, which has resulted in poor presentations, test performance and other consequences due to following group goals instead of my own. Now that I am aware of the threat of groupthink, I hope I am more careful about every future decision, especially when working towards decisions with a group!
I liked your example of groupthink and have experienced something sort of similar. In my physics class in high school our biggest project was building a catapult that not only had to work, but also had to be accurate. Our group met at a member's house where her grandfather and father were going to help us build it. Both were engineers and felt confident that their daughter/granddaughter's group would have the best catapult. Because they had more experience, we overestimated the ability of her relatives and did not criticize or put in any extra input. Our catapult halfway worked, but once we went back to school and saw what other people had done, we realized that there were definitely better ways to approach the task and make decisions.
LOL! Nice example. I've never really thought about whether I've experienced groupthink, but after reading your story I'm sure I've got a similar instance lurking in my past. I was always handing out with my older brother's friends when I was younger, and I've likely gone along with their authority while working on some silly group project as well. I'll definitely keep this example in mind next time I'm around them.
That groupthink is a sly one! I'm sure that I've tried to take control of a group before and caused a bit of it, though no instance comes to mind. I do recall several instances when I've been in groups and the group was beginning to consolidate and go in one direction, but I or someone else would thankfully stop a negative groupthink effect by shedding light on some very simple and obvious flaw.
Post a Comment