Gucci Sweater, 2019
This week in Applied Social Psychology, I became particularly interested in interpersonal processes in organizations. Within interpersonal processes in organizations, Chapter 10 in Applied Social Psychology, Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, by Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, discusses group decision making. While learning about the consequences regarding group decision making, I immediately made a connection between a current event and the theories of groupthink and normative influence. Unfortunately, many poor decisions that can genuinely offend and hurt people can be a result of groupthink and normative influence.
Almost everyone with access to social media has heard about the latest controversy revolving around the popular luxury brand, Gucci. For those who do not know, in the beginning of February, Gucci released a sweater that many claim resembles blackface. The origin of blackface goes all the way back to the 1830s, when white theater performers would paint their faces black and portray black people through negative stereotypes (“Blackface”, n.d.). Earlier this month, when a twitter user posted a screenshot of the sweater from Gucci’s website, thousands of people retweeted the post, causing an outrage all over the internet. Understandably so, people all over the world are offended by Gucci’s black face sweater, and even boycotting the company. Since the sweater went viral over the internet, Gucci has issued an apology and removed the sweater from their stores (Held, 2019).
Many people are wondering how a company like Gucci, the best-selling Italian brand in the world (“World’s Top Dollar Fashion Brands”, 2016), with hundreds of designers and marketing employees, could actually create and execute a sweater that resembles blackface. How is it possible that various people working for a $12.4 billion company could make such a big mistake? Did all those people really look at the sweater and think it was a good idea? I want it to be clear that I believe a blatant disrespect for black people and black history was a huge factor that contributed to the design being made and sold. But is every single person that was involved with the creation of the sweater racist? I am under the impression that groupthink and normative influence helped contribute to the design being approved, physically made, and put on sale as opposed to being thrown in the trash like it should have been.
Groupthink is defined as a poor decision-making process that can occur when members of a group feel strong pressures to reach high-group adhesiveness (Schneider et al., 2012). According to Schneider et al. (2012), there are various conditions that can yield groupthink, including:
- High stress
- Directive leadership
- Over-confidence brought on by amplified sense of collective efficacy
- Lack of outside opinions
- Over-valuing group cohesion and solidarity
Normative influence is defined as pressure to act or think a certain way to achieve social approval and prevent negative social consequences (Schneider et al., 2012). Keeping the definitions of groupthink and normative influence in mind, we can imagine how these theories could have caused the blackface sweater design to be approved. For example, it is highly possibly that there is a group of people who work for Gucci who look at designs and give them the “okay” to be physically made and then sold either in stores or online. We can imagine a room of 30 people hastily looking through sketches of designs because a deadline for a new collection is the following day (high stress). When the sketch for the sweater comes up, 25 out of the 30 people in the room immediately make the connection between the design and blackface and know that the design should not be approved. However, out of the 5 people with various situational variables that cause them to not feel negatively about the design (racism, ignorance, apathy, distraction), 4 of them have considerably higher control in the company than everyone else in the room, including the person who is the leader of the group: the creative director. In line with groupthink, the creative director expresses his approval for the sweater right away (directive leadership). Following the creative director’s lead, 14 more people approve the sweater. However, the 15 people left are trying to decide if they are going to speak up or not. When one person expresses their concerns, the creative director makes a negative, embarrassing comment towards the person (negative social consequence) and moves on with the discussion. The remaining 14 people saw how the creative director treated the person with an opposing opinion and did not want the same consequence (normative influence) and wanted to maintain cohesion within the group (groupthink), so they decided to approve the design even though they truly felt like it was not the right decision.
When companies as popular as Gucci make extremely poor choices like they did with the blackface sweater, people question how it is even possible. While the obvious disrespect for black people is an explanation, this situation also displays the problems of group decision making. Specifically, it shows how groupthink and normative influence can result in poor decisions that insult and hurt others.
References:
Blackface: The Birth of an American Stereotype. (n.d). Retrieved from https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/blackface-birth-american-stereotype
Gucci Sweater. (2019). [image]. Image retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692314950/gucci-apologizes-and-removes-sweater-following-blackface-backlash
Held, A. (2019). Gucci Apologizes And Removes Sweater Following ‘Blackface’ Backlash. npr. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692314950/gucci-apologizes-and-removes-sweater-following-blackface-backlash
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
World’s Top Billion Dollar Fashion Brands. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.fashion-schools.org/articles/world%E2%80%99s-top-billion-dollar-fashion-brands
Tags: #Groupthink, group decision making, normative influence
Hey fellow classmate,
First of all, I am a sucker for good titles, and yours is winning! When I first read about Gucci’s latest racist stunt, I was shocked, like many others. I just couldn’t comprehend how a well known company like Gucci could come up with a racist design that disrespects an entire race of people. You would think that a design suggestion goes to multiple levels of trials and approvals before it gets to the public. The public usually holds a high standard for a successful company, and when they fail to deliver, consumers are left confused and outraged. We obviously don’t see what’s going on behind company’s closed doors, but you nailed it in your post; the power of groupthink was grossly underestimated at Gucci’s headquarters.
Thank you for your post. You bring up a very important issue concerning our society nowadays.
Annie
Hello,
I found your post very informative, but not only that I found it also relatable and up-to-date. First, I like that you gave an insight to what blackface is and why it is hurtful to certain groups of people. I agree with you that their “groupthink” lead to poor decision-making process. As you mentioned in your post about your theory of what went on in the group when the decision was made, it might have been influenced by the norm of the group. If they did not initially see anything wrong with it, then we can somewhat assume that their staff “group” might not have had a black person to express their opinion about how this could be perceived as blackface when released to the world. This does indeed show how normative influence can result in poor decisions that insult and hurt others.