Submitted by itaniepitas in Decision_Making

Decades ago, famed social psychologist Irving Janus (1971) developed the construct of groupthink. Groupthink is a common social psychological problem associated with group decision making. Often, group decisions are made by homogenous groups—groups with members who tend to think like one another. Groups in which members pretty much hold the same values and have similar kinds of life experiences as one another. In such contexts, group polarization tends to happen pretty quickly.

Well it turns out that groupthink can be disastrous. When a small group of like-minded individuals is charged with making a decision that will affect a broader population that is relatively heterogeneous, things don’t always go well. The prevailing narrative within the group may well be highly mismatched from many of the other narratives that are held by folks outside the room. This is often why things go south when it comes to national and international politics. This is often when wars start between nations.

Groupthink is a problem. And the more polarized our nation becomes ideologically, the more we find ourselves engaging in groupthink without even realizing it.

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ziq wrote

Democrats and republicans are the same thing for all intents and purposes - capitalists - so who gives a shit?

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