Groupthink at CFAU

Groupthink seems to have recently swept through the student body at FAC. The majority of students in a class of Foreign Affairs majors that had been enthusiastic a week earlier rated me as their worst FAC teacher. Suddenly my attitude had become "unbearable," and most students, in that class and at least one other, believed I did not "respect" them, based on highly dubious reasoning.

Only a short time earlier, a typical view had been:

To be frank,you're a really persuasive teacher.I like to argue with you in class,because every time I can learn a lot.It's my luck to have a unique teacher as Uriel.

Or:

I think your class is very challenging for us, and we have to be always alert, and smart in your class, but I think that is OK, and we could learn a lot in your class.... We can learn a lot from you.

But now the authors of the above emailed comments, together with their peers, were suddenly vociferous in their objections to my style. When I told one of the classes that my sincere objective was to help students think better and make them mentally stronger, one girl laughed contemptuously.

It can happen that a person's views undergo an abrupt and dramatic change, but it's remarkable when it happens to a large group of individuals simultaneously. Based on heated discussions in my classes yesterday morning and this morning, I believe what has happened is an instance of Groupthink -- a phenomenon Irving Janis defines as "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."

Janis lists symptoms of Groupthink which include the following:

• Belief in Inherent Morality of the Group. Under the sway of groupthink, members automatically assume the rightness of their cause.

• Collective Rationalization, a mindset which dismisses differing views without adequate evaluation.

• Out-group Stereotypes: making simplistic and unfounded assumptions about people who are not members of the group.

• Self-Censorship. Individuals within the group suppress any doubts they feel themselves about the group's thinking.

• Illusion of Unanimity: group members have the false sense that the group is unanimous.

• Direct Pressure on Dissenters. Group members are pressured not to oppose the group's thinking.

• Self-Appointed Mindguards. "Mindguards" protect a leader from assault by troublesome ideas.