Rather than assume that individuals who resist health initiatives misunderstand the health threat or are too stupid to understand it, a groupthink analysis tracks their noncompliance to group-level processes rather than individual-level ones.Because antihealth protests are, in some respects, intergroup conflicts, blurring the boundaries between groups or dissolving distinctions between groups altogether may limit noncompliance with health initiatives.
Public service announcements designed to create a sense of shared identity, such as “We’re all in this together” and “Alone together” campaigns, will be more effective if viewers can identify with the individuals who serve as spokespersons in these messages.Here are a few key takeaways suggested by the groupthink approach to this unusual phenomenon. Also, the groups exhibited many of the symptoms of groupthink, including the illusion of morality, inclusivity, and an overestimation of the reasonableness of their beliefs.
This analysis won the 2020 Group Dynamics Most Valuable Paper award.Ĭan groupthink theory help explain antimask and antivaccination protests? Media accounts of the noncompliant groups suggest that the conditions that often cause groupthink-such as high levels of cohesion and isolation, stress, strong conformity pressures, and directive but misinformed leadership-were all in evidence as these groups grew in influence and intensity. People in groups often make mistakes, not because they have been overcome by their emotions or have subpar intelligence but because group-level processes prevent members from accurately appraising information, identifying errors, and considering superior alternatives. But Donelson Forsyth, in an article published in Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, suggests a second explanation for this unusual refusal to act in ways that are reasonable, healthy, and normative: groupthink. Traditional crowd psychology suggests that their actions illustrate mob mentality, which occurs when people’s beliefs, actions, and emotions converge but also intensify, so that they seem to be responding as one. Some of them distrusted the medical experts, some did not think the virus would harm them, and some resisted because they were members of groups that resisted. To quell the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities urged people to take easy-to-implement precautions, such as limiting social interactions, wearing a face covering, and vaccinating.
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