Would you say the wrong answer, just to fit in?
Psychologist Solomon Asch wanted to know how often people would give an obviously wrong answer just to fit in with a group. He sat 123 male students in groups of seven to nine and asked them to say out loud which of three lines matched the length of a fourth. Everyone else in the room was in on it, and on 12 of the 18 rounds they all gave the same wrong answer before the real participant's turn came.
When participants judged the lines alone, fewer than 1% of their answers were wrong. With the group, 36.8% of answers went along with the wrong majority, and only 24% stayed independent all the way through. In a follow-up, the group still answered out loud, but the real participant wrote his answer down instead of saying it. The error rate fell to 12.5%, about a third of what it had been.
People rarely expect to agree with a mistake, but the desire to fit in is incredibly powerful, so good critical thinking needs a bit of protection.
How to fight group think:
Write before you talk: At the start of any decision meeting, give everyone two minutes to write down their own view before anyone speaks.
Let the most senior person go last: Ask leaders to hold their opinion until everyone else has shared theirs.
Ask for alternatives: Before you close a discussion, ask "who sees this differently?".
A meeting where everyone agrees in under a minute probably needs a pen and paper.
If you'd like to help your team disagree more usefully, book a free 30 minute consultation with me.
Source
Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70(9, Whole No. 416).