A few days ago, I happened to come across this article after clicking randomly at one of the Google ads. You can access the article at http://www.natzi.com/. The content of the article is not something I do not know. In fact, everybody already knew what Natzi is all about, isn't it so? What captured my interest was the last three sentences of the article. It says, "How could so many human beings take part in such cruel and inhumane acts? How could humanity stand by for so long to allow such things to happen? The answer to these questions may not be very hard to find." Those few sentences struck a spot inside my head and forced me to ponder upon it. What exactly was the reason behind the faithfulness of Natzi members towards Mr. Hitler's causes and goals? What made people listened to his every single word, even for those that commanded them to do such immoral, inhuman acts?
Many things ran through my mind; power, fanatical beliefs, invincibility, unity, glory, pride, petty-minded, discrimination, and many other things to relate to the answer for the questions the article had put in my tiny little mind. Then I found that those points all came together as a phenomenon called "group think".
According to Irving Javis, group think is "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members' striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action." Okay, I know it sounds very complicated. Basically, it is a thinking mode in which people lose their own identity in order to keep the majority's opinion intact and in order to keep themselves in the group.
There are several symptoms of group think: illusion of invulnerability, believe in group's own morality, shared stereotypes, collective rationalization, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, and mind guards.
But how do Natzi comes in when we are talking about these theories? First, Natzi is a very united and committed group to their cause. They believe too much on their own morality and
stereotypes to the border that they no longer accept opinions and beliefs from outside their circle. They believed that their race is the most superior - other races are all beneath them - and Jews are trashes they should eradicate from their ancestor's land. Their senses were so obstructed that they didn't think holocaust is a crime. For them, that is their justice.And like many other communist, the flow of information in the Natzi circle was controlled. Things that will disturbed the unity of the Natzi regime was to be destroyed completely. They have implemented mind-guards so that they could stay faithful to to their so-called holy cause. And so, the members started to censor their own mind. They banished all thoughts that go against the group's beliefs. And I think I had found the answer to why they allowed themselves to perform such cruelty and threw away their humanity. It's all for the sake of keeping the group together.
You see, sometimes clinging too hard to a group is not necessarily a good thing. But I am not saying that thinking as a group is a sin either. What matters is how you manage your own mind and keep your own personality instead of throwing yourself fully into a group's mentality. Group think might bring harm to both your group and others. The Natzi is the perfect example for the negative effect of group think. So, I would like to advise you guys for being careful in managing a group work, lest you develop the same group think like the German's stain in history.
9 comments:
To make this clear...
Because of a glitch, Farhan frahan and carlajulian's comments were posted on the wrong place and I can't really move it or anything. So, I copied their comments and re-posted them in the right place. Once again, I'm just re-posting their comments!
Blogger farhan franha said...
i believe for the Nazis what made them who they are is Hitler himself.
He had the ability to influence minds and convince the Germans that Jews were the enemies of the state. The power to lead can be very corrupting indeed.
In this world, there are leaders and there are followers. Followers tend to think as a herd and hence you've got groupthink. Its the leaders that direct this herd to do whatever they want be it good or bad things.
I had a random dream that the nazis invaded singapore the other day. Wont it be horrible if that happened?
February 28, 2009 2:51 PM
Blogger carla julian said...
Hi,, in fulfilling your request,,, hehehe........
I think you're right that clinging too hard to a group is not a good thing because it will make us not comfortable and it gives a hard time for us too.......
It's good that you picked Natzi as your example to explain groupthink.........
Thank you for your brief explanation about groupthink, I learned more from your post,, :D
C u in my blog too,,, :D
February 28, 2009 5:17 PM
hey lena,
i watched this documentary about the nazi trials, and one of the interviewees was saying how most of the people who followed hitler (like his second-in-command), or "group think-ed", did so because they lacked their own sense of self. they were so... i guess, lacking in intellect and had no world views of their own and had no sense of conscience that they followed whatever way of thinking was imposed on them - which unfortunately was the supremacist ways of hitler.
so like what you said with "people los(ing) their identity" and the 'censoring' of minds.
@ Farhan
Well, yeah... I admit that Hitler was a charismatic leader. If not, he wouldn't be able to influence so much people to follow his cause, like you said.
@ Cella
Hmmn...Interesting. So lacking intellect also contribute to group think. I guess the trials you have seen is a further proof that group think makes you lose your identity and ability to voice your own view.
Hello Elena,
Yesterday, i was in bible study class and so happened that my teacher shared about Adolf Hitler. In historical records, Adolf Hitler actually came out with a stratgies of drawing the whole germany people to him by meeting three basic needs of the peole after a post war where the male parents are killed. Those three are significance, security and selfworth by providing them with food, clothings and power if the males join his army.
These people then form a group. The very bad thing about this Nazi group is that no member knows the real purpose behind which is to kill all the Jews for they have no hatred relations with. This application can be fell onto the groupthinking category, where all members listen to the leader submissively without questions in their mind.
Thanks for such a wonderful Post. I believe it can also make a difference in history students. Lol *_*
I liked the way how you linked groupthink with the Nazis because it truly shows what groupthink is all about.
The Nazis can commit such atrocities as they think that their leader is right, and follow his ideals (that are obviously wrong) blindly. Your post clearly illustrates the dangers of groupthink and has brought a very real example to this section of the chapter.
Learnt alot from your post when you used such vivid examples! And patiently waiting for the next one! :D
so do any of you have spell check or are you all like prepubescent girls? it's a good article and you make a valid point as to how with group think no one questions other group members if only somone was willing to give Mr. Hitler a second opinion they may have actualy managed to make the world a better place
@ Anonymous
Thank you for the constructive comment, even though I prefer civil ones.
Yes, Hitler was a brilliant man. If only he wasn't so blinded by his own agenda and willing to accept others' opinion, perhaps the Nazis might do some good to the world. But the fact that group think is a dangerous thing remains.
Post a Comment