Groupthink Quotes

“For it is dangerous to attach one's self to the crowd in front, and so long as each one of us is more willing to trust another than to judge for himself, we never show any judgement in the matter of living, but always a blind trust, and a mistake that has been passed on from hand to hand finally involves us and works our destruction. It is the example of other people that is our undoing; let us merely separate ourselves from the crowd, and we shall be made whole. But as it is, the populace,, defending its own iniquity, pits itself against reason. And so we see the same thing happening that happens at the elections, where, when the fickle breeze of popular favour has shifted, the very same persons who chose the praetors wonder that those praetors were chosen.”
― Seneca

“What kind of men, then, does our society need? What is the "social character" suited to twentieth century Capitalism? It needs men who co-operate smoothly in large groups; who want to consume more and more, and whose tasks are standardized and can easily be influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority, or principle, or conscience - yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected, to fit into the social machine without friction.”
― Erich Fromm, The Sane Society

“But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

“Alice is fictional. This isn't.”
― Jess C. Scott, Zombie Mania: A Zombie Apocalypse Parody

“Do not take roads traveled by the public.”
― Pythagoras

“All representatives of the ideology of power, which is based on a false conception of the self, fear people who are inner-directed and have contempt for them because it is a fear that cannot be acknowledged. It makes no difference if one is on the right or left politically. What we are faced with on all sides is an obsession with power, rather than an openness to reality with all its rich and vital possibilities.”
― Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness

“When like-minded people argue, all they do is provide each other with new reasons supporting already held beliefs. Just like solitary reasoners, groups of like-minded people can be victims of belief polarization, overconfidence, and belief perseverance.”
― Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber

“Groups have powerful self-reinforcing mechanisms at work. These can lead to group polarization—a tendency for members of the group to end up in a more extreme position than they started in because they have heard the views repeated frequently.
At the extreme limit of group behavior is groupthink. This occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment.” The original work was conducted with reference to the Vietnam War and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. However, it rears its head again and again, whether it is in connection with the Challenger space shuttle disaster or the CIA intelligence failure over the WMD of Saddam Hussein.

Groupthink tends to have eight symptoms:
1 . An illusion of invulnerability. This creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks. [...]
2. Collective rationalization. Members of the group discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions. [...]
3. Belief in inherent morality. Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
4. Stereotyped views of out-groups. Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary. Remember how those who wouldn't go along with the dot-com bubble were dismissed as simply not getting it.
5. Direct pressure on dissenters. Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.
6. Self-censorship. Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.
7. Illusion of unanimity. The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.
8. "Mind guards" are appointed. Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group's cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions. This is confirmatory bias writ large.”
― James Montier, The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How not to be your own worst enemy

“Conformist thinking is self-defeating because it knows only the categories of punishment and submission, but not the potential that lies in understanding. The image of the enemy must be maintained at all costs; for this reason, the "enemy" must never be humanized. Both the revolutionary and the conformist depend on the image of the enemy; they need it in order to rationalize their violence to maintain their positions.”
― Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness

“We couldn’t survive as a people if we were always confined to one ship or one world.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

“As long as we measure a person's psychological health by the degree to which he or she accepts social conventions, we will fail to see that under certain circumstances these conventions demand a submissive acceptance of of errors and lies.”
― Arno Gruen, The Betrayal of the Self

“Development is directed toward the inner world if children receive the kind of love that enables them to experience helplessness without feeling alone. If this is the case, helplessness will not be perceived as a total abandonment or condemnation but as a state through pain and sorrow to new strength rather than to destruction. This sort of experience will produce a self that does not perceive helplessness as a deadly threat but as a possibility for new integration and new beginnings.”
― Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness

“Development is directed toward the inner world if children receive the kind of love that enables them to experience helplessness without feeling alone. If this is the case, helplessness will not be perceived as a total abandonment or condemnation but as a state through pain and sorrow to new strength rather than to destruction sort of experience will produce a self that does not perceive helplessness as a deadly threat but as a possibility for new integration and new beginnings.”
― Arno Gruen, The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness

“Solidarity is great for a group that needs to work in unison or march into battle. Solidarity engenders trust, teamwork, and mutual aid. But it can also foster groupthink, orthodoxy, and a paralyzing fear of challenging the collective. Solidarity can interfere with a group's efforts to find the truth”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure

“I see traces of the Children of God, with all its inherent cult-think and harmful behavior, in almost every group, organization, or team I have ever joined or studied. And I'm always asking myself: Where does a cult end and a culture begin? What is the difference between a good organization and a bad cult? I don't think there is a difference, ultimately. Most groups are just groups. Evil cults. Great armies. Wonderful families. Amazing countries. Pile whatever modifiers on them you want. Each one has the same inherent strengths, weaknesses, and potential pitfalls.”
― Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir

“How different am I, how different are you, how different is any human—all of us with instincts that tell us we are safer in our groups?”
― Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir

“They, they, they. The mysterious "they" of Versailles, as though it is the palace itself that talks, as though the statues and mirrors can speak.”
― Sally Christie, The Sisters of Versailles

“Mob is not the plural of man, he said. We’re dealing with a different species, that has kaleidoscopes in the hollows of the eyes. Where projections of violence keep rotating at increasing velocity. Until the prisms shatter with their own frenzy, & the blinded creature collapses in the rubble it has created.”
― Ursule Molinaro, The Autobiography of Cassandra, Princess & Prophetess of Troy

“Everybody goes where everybody goes.”
― Thomas Vato

“Sometimes there must be someone who says something nobody else does on something the majority agrees but stays silent not to put a target on their backs.”
― Thomas Vato

“Those who speak of their anger, their mistrust, or their dislike of certain groups tend not to see any contradiction in this behaviour and their claims to be moral, professional, or effective psychologists.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“Telling people that they are racist—on the basis of immutable characteristics, using incomprehensible definitions that they may not know or understand—then claiming they are “fragile” and in denial when they try to defend themselves, or accusing them of “gaslighting” when they don’t agree with you, is a punitive way of treating people, whatever their colour.”
― Dr Val Thomas, Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

“The past is our always-available counterculture, and it's a rich one. Every minute you spend attending to something not-immediately-present, you are helping to build a counterculture.”
― Alan Jacobs

“Mistakes abound when groupthink goes unchallenged.”
― Greg Lukianoff, The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution

“Logical minds, accustomed to be convinced by a chain of somewhat close reasoning, cannot avoid
having recourse to this mode of persuasion when addressing crowds, and the inability of their
arguments always surprises them”
― Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Gustave Le Bon Gustave Le Bon

“When you're a malleable teenager seeking the approval of others, you can find yourself conforming to what you think other people's tastes and interests are instead figuring out what works for you. That brings with it a special degree of contradiction for many young metalheads: reveling in an anti-conformity attitude of rejecting popular culture while also figuring out how to conform within social circles based on the expectations, styles, and tastes of those setting the tone for what's >really cool. Just because you reject mainstream groupthink doesn't mean you're not susceptible to underground groupthink in your own bubbles, circles, and bullshit.”
― Danica Roem, Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change

“Groupthink seems like a safe path. But no inventor/researcher finds what he seeks there”
― Henk Mutsaers

“The Engineer glanced at the Cutter and Driver, who sat quietly, hesitant to weigh in despite sharing some of his concerns.”
― Aaron Gilbee, Shortcut to Victory: How the Weavers did it…

“Most of you,' he went on, 'already know how I have
been able to limit the area of investigation in a first
approximation. But one or two of you are not yet in
formed. For you, and to refresh everyone's memory, I'll
go over my calculations again.'
At that point he gave me a roguish and forceful look
demanding my complicity in this adroit falsehood. For
naturally everyone was still in the dark. But by this
simple ruse, each person had the impression of belonging to a minority, of being among 'one or two not yet in formed', felt himself surrounded by a convinced majority, and was eager to be quickly convinced himself.”
― René Daumal, Mount Analogue

“History is a sad testament to the limitations of external change, or changing things from the outside.

A dime a dozen and almost invariably overrated in hindsight, countless revolutions, insurgencies, wars, conflicts, struggles and social movements have stubbornly—and blindly—sought to create a better world.

Yet true, lasting transformation remains elusive at the groupthink level. We grapple with the same issues, generation after generation, in this hamster wheel called ‘reality.’ Why is external change so damn challenging?

Because, I contend, to echo Henry David Thoreau’s celebrated quote about the branches and roots of evil, pursuing external change only addresses symptoms, not the deeper cause.”
― Sol Luckman, Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality