In the early 1970s Irving Janis coined the term ‘groupthink’. This refers to the ways groups of people can reach a compromise or consensus through conformity, without thoroughly analysing the ideas or concepts: https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/irving-janis.html

Janis described three rules of groupthink:

Rule One

Rule One is that a group of people come to share a common view or belief that in some way is not based on reality. They may believe they have all manner of confirmatory evidence but no test that confirms that their view is anything more than a shared belief.

Rule Two

Rule Two is that because they cannot prove their view with external proof they claim there is a consensus among all right thinking people. This seems self-evident to the people in the group, and if anyone dares to challenge it their belief system must be defended at all costs.

Rule Three

Rule Three is that since the consensus must be right there is no point in discussing it. Not only this but if anyone has the impertinence to question the consensus they must either be ignored or discredited.

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A key feature of groupthink is that the groupthink process is invisible to the group’s members.

This account does seem to describe some of the frustrating state of the world in late 2021.

There is, of course, a prima facie simple solution – open up the group fairly to a range of views. But to accept this you have to agree there is a ‘groupthink problem’ in the first place.

Questions: does ODT have a ‘groupthink’ problem? If so what can we do about it?