Groupthink and Harry Potter

[kerravonsen]

I just stumbled across a fascinating series of articles about Groupthink, particularly in the context of Christian Fundamentalism:
The Danger of Groupthink Part 1: Consensus and Power
The Danger of Groupthink Part 2: Unanimity and Paranoia
Groupthink Part 3: A Dangerous Sense of Invulnerability
Groupthink Part 4: Overestimating the Group's High Moral Stance

I think it clarifies a bit more why groups which start off with good intentions could end up "preaching hate".

---

And then I started thinking about Harry Potter. I am such a hopeless fangirl!

I'm not actually going to touch on the Death Eaters in regard to Groupthink, because it isn't an interesting question. They probably were suffering from Groupthink, but also Voldemort was a psychopath and they were a cult, and I'm not that interested in how they got that way.

No, the question that is niggling at me is "How close was the Order of the Phoenix to the dangers of Groupthink?"

The dangers were this:

1) A charismatic leader (Dumbledore) whom very few of them questioned. I don't think any of them made him accountable for his actions, not even Snape.

2) Mostly made up of Gryffindors; a homogeneity of thought.

3) A tense situation which encouraged paranoia.

4) Followers who unthinkingly defended Dumbledore (Hagrid) or attacked dissent (Moody).

5) Was Dumbldore's treatment of Harry Potter a case of the ends justifying the means? The "greater good" being served by child abuse (the Dursleys neglect and verbal violence towards Harry was still abuse) and setting Harry up to die.
I ask this as a question, because we don't know, from canon, whether Dumbledore knew of the abuse or not; was he a manipulative bastard or merely incompetent?

6) Was Dumbledore's treatment of Snape versus the Marauders a case of Gryffindor groupthink? The idea that because someone belongs to The Group (in this case, Gryffindor) then that is imputed to them as righteousness. And the converse, that those outside The Group are evil. Or at least that all Slytherins are evil.

7) Dumbledore's plans were, when one looks back on them, really stupid; half of them were blind faith that everything would work out - surely an example of Impetuous Courage.
And it's clear that he didn't discuss his plans with anybody; he merely told his followers that subset of his plans that he needed them to know in order for them to follow his orders.

Comments

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

I first encountered GroupThink in psych class back at Monash, where we used it to analyse the 1987 space shuttle disaster. It's a really painful truth that groups can often make poorer decisions than the individuals who make them up.

The Order of the Phoenix would be highly vulnerable to GroupThink. But in everyday life you often see leaders who value harmony and conformity highly. They then wonder why their groups perform poorly when "everyone gets along so well".

[kerravonsen]

I first encountered GroupThink in psych class back at Monash, where we used it to analyse the 1987 space shuttle disaster.

Oh, interesting! I remember learning in psych that groups tend to make more extreme decisions than individuals, but I don't think we covered GroupThink.

But in everyday life you often see leaders who value harmony and conformity highly. They then wonder why their groups perform poorly when "everyone gets along so well".

Perhaps the dangers of GroupThink ought to be a required part of an MBA.... never happen, though.

Strategies for avoiding GroupThink...
* the leader must encourage diversity of opinion.
* when the group is formed, if possible it must set out testable conditions where it can determine when the group's goals have been fulfilled, and procedures to disband the group; this would avoid the danger that the purpose of the group becomes the survival of the group.

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the dangers of GroupThink ought to be a required part of an MBA
It was. We had a compulsory class on Organisational Behaviour which included it.

[kerravonsen]

Ah, interesting.
I guess people are very good at "it can't happen here" self-delusion.