Group Thinking Action - Essay Example

 Group Thinking Action “Group Think” is an interesting group thinking action. Many times you hear people often thinking about ideas and taking actions based on their own thinking. There is another thinking that has affected not just American life but has moved around the world. Politics and probably racist feelings come out often from this psychological concept “Group Think.” The American psychologist, Irving Janis defines this psychological process of thinking as: “Group think” is a form of decision making characterized by uncritical acceptance of a prevailing point of view. It is a form of collective delusion, where bizarre policies are rationalized collectively and contradictory evidence is discredited. Members of the group suffer an illusion of both invulnerability and morality, and construct negative stereotypes of outsiders.” (Barham 1) I feel that “Group Think” can be very dangerous. I have a friend who is an American, born and raised there. I remember after the planes crashed on 9/11 then the new word to figure out for word was, “Muslim” and “terrorist.” In America and in most parts of the world the word terrorist is negative and doesn’t mean that the person is part of a particular country’s armed services. I remember a few months ago when I was taking to my friend who believes in the Koran and thus in America and around the world labeled as a “Muslim”. We were writing back and forth about the Islamic faith and he replied in one mail not to send the mail to everyone of my list. He did not the government to be reading his mail. Now, why would my friend be terrified by the fact that he is American who happens to believe in the Islam faith? “Group Think” comes into play here. This type of thinking is dangerous and can only lead people and societies down dangerous paths. If all of Americans come to believe that Islam is some crazy cult and creates “terrorists” then my friends could become a threat in thinking and in the minds of many Americans. This thinking creates negative stereotypes of outsiders. These stereotypes may be totally false. This type of think places me versus you which can create divisions and ignorance in a particular society. If you add anger and vengeance as feelings that are attached to a type of thinking, then this becomes very dangerous. This may sound silly to you but “Group Think” gets at the idea of delusions and illusions. If someone is severely delusional and illusional than a psychologists might be called in to start treatment. This person may not know what reality is. They could be acting out a fake reality. Delusional Disorders are real psychological disorders. The person may know the correct reality of a situation or a problem but since so many agree with an idea, they may go along with this idea. I know from my own observations that Muslim started to mean “terrorist”. I felt sorry for my friend who I know is not an Islamic terrorist in any way. I know he has studied and practiced the Muslim faith all of his life. I had to try and reason for myself that all Muslims living in the US are not terrorists. The problem with not thinking as an individual but thinking as a whole or thinking as a majority can create mistruths about people and situations. My friend has a family, has a good job, and loves America. I felt sorry that he has worry about how they (the American Intelligence agencies) thinks about his faith, Islam. I don’t know all the exact facts or all the studies about Americans and if they hear the word “terrorist”, do they immediately think of a Muslim as being a terrorist. My personal feeling is than whenever you don’t question your own thinking that your own thinking can become strange and delusional and a “collective delusion” is created. The American Psychological Association defines, a delusion(s) as, “Delusions:  False or irrational beliefs maintained despite clear evidence to the contrary.” (A.P.A. 1) I want to focus on how “Group Think” can cause devastating damage to people’s views and be dangerous. There are many people who are hospitalized for being delusional. I went out and search for evidence supporting my idea that “Group Think” is dangerous. I found evidence of how “Group Think” works from England an America through online sources, and it relates to the idea that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and therefore, it was in the best interest of both the Americans and the British to invade Iraq. The invasion has led to the devastation of Iraq and its political and societal structure. The guardian newspaper noted a group study about the invasion of Iraq from a British point of view. The study concluded that the, “the intelligence community suffered from "collective group think" which led to the presumption that Iraq had an active and growing weapons of mass destruction program. This “group think” caused the community to interpret ambiguous evidence such as the procurement of dual use technology" to mean Iraq had an active weapons program. (Barham 1). If all Britains believe that an idea is common belief and doesn’t question its merit on their time then wars can become real. The real danger can be death. I was in the US and “uncritical acceptance” of the weapons of mass destruction. This led the way for the US to invade Iraq and claim Saddam Hussein was an evil man. In England the government has to go ahead to go along with the US with the invasion of Iraq. The error with “Group Think” here is that no one questions the idea of the country of Iraq as having millions of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is a country where many practice the Islamic faith. If the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Islamic believes (Muslims) then the evil Muslim Saddam Hussein could carry out more attacks. US politicians has this to same after the invasion occurred and lives were lost. A U.S. politician noted, "The fact is, the administration, at all levels and to some extent, us [Congress], used bad information to bolster its case for war," Rockefeller said. "And we in Congress would not have authorized that war — we would not have authorized that war with 75 votes — if we knew what we know now." (Porteus 1) It is interesting that the thinking of individuals is affected. The possible way to cure this type of delusional thinking is to investigate the facts of any given situation. Many people don’t have to believe in a false idea and can question whether the idea has merit and has truth. I feel that “Group Think” is very detrimental to socities because it causes individuals to not think for themselves and just follow what others tell them. It is not hard to find sources for this type of unhealthy thinking. Delusional thinking can be diagnosed as a disorder for individuals. I thinking it can diagnosed for an entire society. I feel that many people should be hospitalized for this condition. Psychotic thinking can lead people to have no remorse and kill innocent people. Delusional thinking is definitely different that delusional thinking except the outcome of both can be very dangerous to self and others. Thinking is important to individual mental health but to in some ways, societal mental health. I found another article related to this type of delusional type of thinking from the The Times online newspaper from England. This is not related to the Iraq invasion but to this type of thinking. A study was conducted about BBC programming, the major television station in England. Here is a direct quote from their study regarding “Group Think” and this type of thinking: “The report points to the danger of BBC programmes being undermined by the liberal culture of its staff, who need to challenge their own assumptions more. “There is a tendency to ‘group think’ with too many staff inhabiting a shared space and comfort zone,”. (Brooks 1) “Group Think” reminds me of a mob mentality. A group that acts out their revenge without knowing any truth and collectively making mistakes is a mob. The interesting part of the BBC study is that people need to “challenge their own assumptions.” I don’t feel that enough politicians in the United States and England challenged their own assumptions about what their intelligence bodies were reporting about the danger of Sadam Hussein. Acting on delusions can cause serious harm. It works like a mob group mentality. The group may carry out actions that are based on false and never questioned beliefs or common truths to a given society. This is difficult to do because it takes individuals to take risks. The politicians could have been worrying about their political career and the people could be worried about their safety, We all need to investigate all issues on our own and find reliable findings to our own truths. This leads to proper mental health and proper thinking. This will help Muslim friends like mine who are afraid everyone is think of an outsider is a terrorist or just stereotype people. Stereotyping can be beneficial in some circumstances but usually it leads the blind to a darkened corridor with no where to do. This happens all over the world. I’m not sure how Muslims see Americans but if you see media coverage burning the American flag then you might be seeing “Group Think” in action. This is my own belief. “Group Think” is not a healthy way to think for individuals or as a collective society. Works Cited Barham, Patrick. (2004, July 15). 'Group think' theory of error. The Guardian. Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jul/15/uk.butler4 Brooks, Richard and Diseph Gardner. (2007, June 17). BBC report damns its ‘culture of bias’. The Times. Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1942948.ece Porteus, Liza. (2004) 'Group Think' Led to Iraq WMD Assessment. FOXnews.com. Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125123,00.html Psychological Terms. (2008). American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://www.psychologymatters.org/glossary.html#d Read More