Steve Bennett wrote:
On 1/29/07, Ron Ritzman ritzman@gmail.com wrote:
Seeing how a few detractors here have been throwing around the term "groupthink" I have to ask, is there any real difference between the
"Groupthink" may well be synonymous with "team spirit" or somesuch, but with the opposite connotation.
Steve
Not that I've thought about it a lot, but I associate groupthink with a situation in which any sort of disagreement is discouraged by social pressure. Not so much that differing ideas are "outvoted" by the group, but that the person offering a different idea is ostracized until they conform.
So, for me, groupthink is very different from consensus. However, I do think we see some instances of groupthink in some areas of Wikipedia.
For instance, calling someone a "troll" for (even very persistently) disagreeing is a step in the direction of groupthink.
Just my 2 cents to the thread...
-Rich Holton