The world of politics seems a bit crazy. Especially since this is an election year. But it is becoming more and more evident that our two-party system is failing the United States. Each side (Democrat or Republican) thinks they are doing things the right way. However, neither side seems to want to work with the other to come up with more effective plans or to meet on some middle ground. As psychology majors, I think most students can see a clear social psychological phenomenon happening in politics.
To help explain the social-psychological aspects of American politics, I will use the groupthink theory described in Applied Social Psychology, 3rd Edition: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M., 2017). Groupthink is described as “a process of flawed decision making that occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach an agreement”. (Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M., 2017). Immediately you can see how groupthink would affect politics.
We often see decisions being made that have a nearly unanimous agreement. I think it is a bit unusual for groups to always agree. Surely there would be other ideas from other group members. Groupthink influences group members to come to an agreement regardless of whether everyone agrees. This happens because of pressures within the “in-group”. Within these groups, a social norm is established and when someone tries to stray from the social norm, they are usually met with intense pressures to return to the norm so as to not disrupt the comfort of the group, even if that person disagrees.
In a harsh atmosphere like politics, this pressure is probably much more intense than say a chess team or a school club. In an article from The FL Orlando Sentinel, David Broder (2007) gives us two examples from the republican side and the democratic side. When republicans saw the risks of military failure in Iraq, they did not offer any new ideas. They chose to stick to the status quo and remain loyal to Bush-era policies regardless of how much support they had. On the other side, Democrats have no plan for illegal immigrants other than allowing them to refuge in the united states. They only find fault in plans that were supported by President Bush.
These effects of groupthink in politics create a failing system that will likely take decades to repair. Possibly longer if we do not accept changing politics and come to some agreement on important policies any time soon. Politicians on both sides (at the time of the aforementioned article) seemed to be blatantly unaware of how quickly and how much politics would change. Compared to the past, politics in the 21st century became and likely will become more diverse and dynamic compared to previous decades. (Broder, David. 2007). With this in mind, I think it is important to be aware of groupthink and think outside of the box, even if it doesn’t agree with your group’s current beliefs.
References:
– Broder, D. (2007, June 7). Pandering, groupthink from both sides – A dispiriting display from Democrats, Republicans. Orlando Sentinel, The (FL), p. A13. Available from NewsBank: Access World News: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/119A03A7632C97C8.
– Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology, 3rd Edition: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: SAGE.
I agree that groupthink is one of the many factors that has led to a decline in the US two-party political system!
What’s interesting is that research Mayo-Wilson, Zollman, & Danks (2012) posits that groups can indeed outperform individuals when it comes to rational judgements, but that it depends largely on the situation—there is a difference between “groupthink” and “wisdom of crowds.” Social context seems to be the issue, not the fact that a group is making the decision.
If this is true, then we do need to encourage, as you put it, “out of the box thinking.” Instead of trying to come to one quick decision, we need to be open to new ideas from a variety of individuals and groups and allow open discussion and debate before important decisions are made.
Reference:
Mayo-Wilson, C., Zollman, K., & Danks, D. (2012). Wisdom of crowds versus groupthink: Learning in groups and in isolation. International Journal of Game Theory, 42(3), 695-723.