8 Symptoms of Groupthink

As a result of investigating our eating habits, on average, when you eat with other people, I decided to eat 35% more than I eat alone. If you go out for a meal with the other four people, it will be over 75%.

From an investment perspective, group thinking is not necessarily a bad thing, as the market tends to have a long-term trend. However, especially in extreme cases of investor psychology, assuming blindfolds and assuming the spectators are always right, there is a possibility that the performance may decline. The list of collective investments seriously mistaken for years has been long

To solve the psychological problem of pastoralism, the eight symptoms of group thought in James Montier's "Behavior Investment Book" are as follows.

Stereotype of external group: This group will build negative stereotypes of competitors outside the group.

Direct pressure on opponents: Members put pressure on someone in the group, they oppose the group's stereotypes, fantasies or pledges and treat such opposition as affair

Consistent fantasies: members mistakenly believe that everyone agrees with the group's decision; silence is regarded as consent

Appointment of "psychic guard": Some members appoint themselves to protect the group from harmful information potentially threatening the satisfaction of the group

Please make a hole in your own argument. In the words of Charlie Manger - reverse, always reverse. See your idea on the other side to better understand your own incentives

Write down the reasons for the initial investment decision and review regularly to determine if the situation has changed.

Decision making: psychological analysis of confrontation, choice and promises through novels on behavioral investment

Defects in symptoms and results. Weak interpretations are sometimes proposed for empirical test failures to provide results that are perfectly consistent with collective thinking. The group thought shows that it can be proved by the existence of a specific subset of these features, and the causality order proposed by Janis (1972, 1982) may not be necessary but implied. When asking for a weak explanation, it is important to ask which feature in collective thinking, if it is unique, it is unique. In other words, collective thought characteristics such as belief in the rigor of decision making and pressure to reach agreement are common to many group processes and in fact it may be beneficial. For example, Nemeth (1986) argues that if most of the ideas are correct, it is desirable to converge to the majority. Other functions such as intelligent guards and self-targeting can better distinguish group thinking from other group processes.

Irving Janis (1982) made the term "collective thinking". Collective thinking refers to "psychological efficiency caused by collective internal pressure, realistic test decline, and moral judgment" (as described in Plous, 1993, p. 203). Signs of collective thinking have impressed fantasies (bringing excessive danger), opponents accused of being malicious or ignorant, have a wrong sense of unity, and are obliged to obey the majority (Plous, 1993 , P. 203). To say the least, the symptoms of collective thinking are not only harmful to the performance of the group itself but also harmful to society.

Do teams with all or most of the thinking symptoms of the group always make false decisions? It is not always the case. Sometimes they are very lucky. Indeed, group decisions may prove useful when decision-making is secondary or routine. However, collective thinking almost always produces bad results if the team faces a tough situation or needs to make a big decision that will affect the situation of the organization. It is time for the devil defender to start shaking his rake. Barry is a practical leader in the leadership and professional development of the Workforce Solutions Group. His experience includes providing and managing business training in a variety of industries including leadership, team development, intergenerational diversity, customer service. Twitter