GroupThink, according to social psychologists, is an unwillingness to venture outside the box. Refusing to consider any idea that brings discomfort to you or your friends. GroupThink keeps group members content, but only for a while. When left unchecked, it leads to stagnation and persistent error. It blinds people to fatal flaws that may ultimately destroy the group.
A second kind of GroupThink, a cousin of the one we just described, is even more insidious. It happens when we dismiss an idea because it came from one of those people. “He’s just a gun-toting right-wing racist conservative nut-job.” “She’s just a tofu-eating left-wing eco-socialist feminazi.” Notice the insertion of the word just to convey dehumanization. The merits of the idea don’t matter. Whether those people even exist doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the perception that crazies are out there, that they do not deserve to be heard and ought to be marginalized.
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