Research 1

Source :

1. When The Majority Is Wrong
http://larrycheng.com/2011/11/21/when-the-majority-is-wrong/

My Topic :

Should we always follow majority opinion?

What I hope to learn from this source:

There is someone's example that the experience when the majority was wrong. It is not only the first time- it says the majority is often wrong. Also I want to show how much 'groupthink' could be strong nowadays.

Notes:

1. Despite the fact that often times the majority rules, that doesn’t mean the majority is right.

2. In an experiment (making personal investment decisions), decisions were always made after individuals would talk to each other behind the scenes to discuss how much they were going to put into each investment. But they were rarely made in isolation.

3. A great predictor of failure for an investment was when the max out scenario took place : If everyone loved a deal and backed up the truck on their personal investment, it was more than likely to not succeed. (=failed in quick fashion.)

4. Groupthink : a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people... Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas and viewpoints. (e.g. Pearl Harbor and the Bay of Pigs)

Groupthink more likely including:

1. High Group Cohesiveness
2. Group Insulation
3. Lack of Impartial Leadership
4. Lack of Norms Requiring Methodological Procedures
5. Homogeneity of Members’ Social Background and Ideology

5. Until we’ve understood how your majority opinion could be wrong, we should strongly question whether your opinion is right. A great and simple test is whether you can argue both the majority and dissenting opinion well – irrespective of which one you hold.


Final Thoughts:

Maybe all the people have their own opinion but they only can't express it because they are living in a "group". As most people work in a company and society, they have to meet a lot of others and don't want to make a conflict. Moreover, there's no one who lead another idea and group cohesiveness is so high that the minority can't claim their opinion. According to the text, I could know that 'groupthink' is also contributed by psychological aspects.