Groupthink

Groupthink

It is defined in Investopedia as a phenomenon that occurs when a group of individuals reaches a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives.

With this phenomenon comes the branches of other things that usually occur. In layman’s terms, sometimes it can be maritessing.

That is when friend A says that friend B is a sl*t, for example. Then friend A says that she sees friend B with different cars dropping her off. Friend C would jive in and say, she sees friend B wearing heavy makeup all the time and is always on her phone. Friend D, E, and F will agree and give their supposed “testimonials”. All of them conclude the same destructive things against Friend B.

Friend E might have been peer-pressured to chime in. Friend F might make stories just to be “in”. It is a scenario that is very common in the society. Without proper evaluation, we just produce a solid conclusion. No Ifs and no buts.

Today, A mentioned that a temp stole a bottle of wine. She made B pull up the CCTV footage on the dates she purportedly thought the wine vanished. They called me to show me the footage. While watching, I observed how A was resolute in her belief that it was a wine that the temp took out from the fridge. I told them, it may just be a can of Pepsi.  A interjected and said, why would the temp cover the Pepsi? They called in C. I excused myself and took one bottle of wine and tested her “theory” and I feel like it’s too long to be something that can be stacked with a coffee cup. A argued that the camera was facing down so it may look short. With much conviction, A concluded it was a bottle of wine. While they were busy discussing, I looked at other details like if it was a bottle, the temp's hands should be far spread in between to cover the length. I found that his hands were normal. B and D chimed in with their theory of making a hole in the cup and slotting in the bottleneck. All of which, I found extremely ridiculous.

I told D to make sure that no one from the team took the said bottle. He laughed at me. When I told D, that it might not be a bottle, A mocked me telling me my idea was stupid. She was zeroed in with the temp as a thief. I did not understand.

Suspecting someone is a dangerous thing. In itself, it causes damage to the person. It does not only make the person feel bad but feel injustice. He is being judged without proper trial. It also makes the accuser look bad as well, especially, if the accused never did anything wrong. In the end, E came and told us that he gave the bottles of wine to F.

Groupthink… it is such a fatal phenomenon. Emotionally and legally. You destroy someone's reputation based on a baseless accusation. And when you leave no room to be debated or questioned about your conclusion, you convict a person based on your assumption.

May we always find wisdom in assessing situations. Just because someone says something does not mean it's the truth. Marcus Aurelius, in his book of meditations, says “Everything you hear is an opinion, not a fact. And everything you see is a perception, not the truth.”