How are some able to think critically, while most are subject to conformity?

People’s worldviews, values, action patterns and the things they hold as facts are more likely than not adjusted to their environment- similar to the way their accents/manner of speaking changes without their agenda.

The way that people think, act and view things is more often than not controlled by groupthink (what their environment propagates) or to be even more precise, what they “believe” the cultural/ social environment they identify with accepts/ does.

The phenomenon of people adapting to a group of people they identify with has often been exploited and successfully used as a tool. It has been exploited in media ranging from marketing strategies to political campaigns.

One way of utilizing this phenomenon is to make someone believe that a group of people they identify with has adopted a certain belief/behavior, statistically increasing the likelihood that they will also adopt this belief/behavior 1.

⚒️ The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered

Some evidence suggests that humans might have evolutionarily benefited from a predisposition to conformity2.

During evolutionary times, your ability to survive would have been directly dependent on a group of people. Questioning or challenging the group’s way of thinking would drastically lower your chances of survival.

Individuals with groupthink would have had the ability to follow along with the group’s way of thinking and behaving, increasing their chances of survival.

🎏 Groupthink

Do most allow their group to think for them?

In a nutshell, groupthink is the tendency for individuals to follow the consensus of their in-group (a group with which one feels a sense of solidarity) rather than individually analyzing the perspective.

Victims of groupthink ignore reason and rationality and instead trust in their in-group, often without being aware of it themselves.

“Groupthink appears at the level of the individual, where they are called irrational beliefs or defense mechanisms. They appear at the level of the family or kin group, where they are called family myths. In science, they appear at the level of professional groups and organizations as such things as confirmation bias”3.

While groupthink may lead to unhelpful consequences, being able to incorporate knowledge accumulated by others, asking for help and using what others have learned is an aspirational capability.

🔦 Conformity Study Example

Would people adjust their opinions to what others around them believe?

Participants were told to watch a dot of light. The dot appeared to be moving (autokinetic effect) and participants were told to individually give an estimate of how much the dot moved.

Participants were then placed in groups of three, with one person whose judgment varied greatly in each group.

Interesting Results:

A strong tendency occurred for the person whose judgment varied greatly, to adjust their judgment closer to that of the other two.

Most participants were not aware of this social influence. Participants were asked, “Were you influenced by the judgments of other persons during the experiments?” most denied it.4

🌪️ Spiral of Silence

The spiral of silence model describes how the individual’s willingness to express their opinion is influenced by how he or she ‘perceives’ popular opinion.

The spiral of silence was proposed by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in 1974 5.

The theory describes the increasing pressure people feel to suppress their opinions when they are under the impression that their opinions are in the minority.

An individual is more likely to go down the spiral if his or her opinion is not in line with what they perceive to be a popular opinion.

The spiral model can be broken down into the following steps: 1- A motivational trigger behind the spiral is the fear of social isolation. “As social beings, most people are afraid of being isolated”6

2- Individuals who are under the impression that their opinion is spreading are more likely to express their opinions publicly.

3- Individuals who are under the impression that their opinion is losing ground are less likely to express their opinion or adopt a more aligned option instead.

4- An opinion that is being publicly reinforced will appear more popular than it really is, while an opinion that is less publicly expressed will appear less popular than it is.

5- A spiral process will prompt other individuals to adopt the publicly reinforced opinion while the less expressed opinion will lose ground.

🎙️ Factor of Change

The theory states that a vocal minority who is not held back by the fear of social isolation can be a factor for change while the conforming majority provides stability. Both the vocal minority and the conforming majority are described as a product of evolution.

Hardcore non-conformists- Individuals who express their opinions because they already feel isolated about their beliefs and therefore don’t view social isolation as a threat sufficiently motivating to stay silent.

Avant-garde- Individuals who speak out because they believe they are “ahead of the times.”

In fact, my father’s university professor was an assistant to the political scientist Elisabet Noelle- Neuman who proposed the Spiral of silence.

🔬 Critical Thinking Style

Critical thinking is the systematic evaluation of information with the use of asking critical questions, evaluating credibility and extending implications.

One way of differentiating thinking styles is with the ‘sponge’ and ‘panning for gold thinking style’ 7:

🔶 Sponge thinking style- passively absorbing information

Although it allows for large amounts of information to be accessed and it does not require high mental exertion, it does not provide any filter for reliable or helpful information.

🔷 Panning for gold thinking style- inspecting and evaluating information before incorporating it

While this requires more intensive mental processing, this can identify credible and objective information as well as identify information that would be counterproductive or redundant.

Bloom Taxonomy maps our way of handling information into levels8.

🔸 Lower-order thinking skills that require less mental exertion are:

🔸 remembering

🔸 understanding

🔸 applying

(^these by themselves can be seen as the sponge thinking style)

🔹 Higher-order thinking skills that require more mental exertion are:

🔹 analyzing

🔹 evaluating

🔹 creating

(^these can be seen as the panning for gold thinking style and also critical thinking skills)

Critical thinking- subjects motivations and results to rational scrutiny, instead of choosing an option that feels right.

💡 Skills for Crytical Thinking

The following higher-order thinking skills are tools for critical thinking:

1- Analyzing: Take a big-picture approach, interpret the underlying functions & gather information.

2- Evaluating: Considering the long-term implications & weighing out perspectives.

3- Creating: Come to a Conclusion & Incorporate the conclusion.

🔍 Analysing

Break down information into separate components and examine them individually.

🖼 Big-picture Approach

Take a big-picture approach rather than a kick or fear-inflicted situational one. In other words, know what is important to you in a zoomed-out big-picture view.

When approaching a thought, idea or view, consider which related intention is a serious goal of yours.

Once you have identified the long-term goal to do with the topic at hand, it can become easier to sift through information effectively and identify the most trustworthy and effective ways of getting there.

🌳 Interpret the Underlying Function

Analyzing the intention behind the creation of the view idea or action plan can reveal new perspectives.

This can include questions such as:

❓ Is there a non-functional purpose behind it? (such as motivating me to comply with a system or is it an attempt to make me feel warm towards the messenger)

❓ Why has this been created? (for example, is this derailing me from a more effective alternative in line with my goal)

❓ Is there an emotional nonstrategic element to it? (for example, am I drawn to it currently because it makes me feel good momentarily)

Generally, it can be effective to pick up on motivations relating to:

🔸 Purely dopamine-releasing (kick of the moment) incentivized perspectives

🔸 Fear-avoiding incentivized perspectives

🔸 Identity driven perspectives

📚 Gather Information

After having a clear idea of your priorities and having dissected the information available to you, gather relevant information from different sources.

Scrutinize their conclusions based on credibility, intention, and long-term usefulness to your goal.

👁️‍🗨️ Evaluating

Evaluating encompasses weighing out and determining the value of different aspects.

🦋 Long-term Implications

Map out the implications that holding, supporting or acting on this information will have and question whether these long-term implications are in line with your long-term goals.

Think it through – Ask: ‘is this the most effective way of reaching your long-term goals?’

Another helpful question to ask: Would you recommend someone you love to go adopt this idea, hold this view or take this action path?

🔭 Weighing out perspectives

After having gathered more information on the topic at hand, is the conclusion that the view you are inspecting is based on, in line with other information you gathered?

To get a full picture of aspects aiding or hindering you, it is effective to feel into an opposing action path or view. This can reveal risks, missed opportunities or more/less effective approaches.

Concerning perspectives at focus, evaluate: 1- If this is in line with your long-term goals. 2- If there is a more effective way to your goals. 3- If there are risks or missed opportunities attached. 4- If it is based on credible objective conclusions.

🖋 Creating

Finally, combine all levels of the taxonomy to create evaluated objective conclusions.

🗂️ Come to a Conclusion

Having evaluated available information in relation to priorities, decide upon which view or action plan is the most effective choice.

It is helpful to check that one is not influenced by situational feelings or temptations.

🎟 Incorporate the Conclusion

Adjust your action patterns and the viewpoints you hold according to your conclusion process.

This can be difficult when one had previously held opposing perspectives or acted not in line with newfound conclusions.

Overcoming this requires one to best the (cognitive dissonance) that comes with accepting new information that is not in line with past views or actions.

Leatning to do this is connected to the ability to learn ongoingly and a decreased risk of being held back by emotional thought barriers.

References

  1. (Javarone, 2014) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437114005871 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  2. (Coultas & van Leeuwen, 2015) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-12697-5_15 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  3. (Allen, 2020) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-36822-7_3 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  4. (Sherif, 1937) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2785261 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  5. (Noelle‐Neumann, 1974) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1974.tb00367.x Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  6. (Noelle-Neumann, 1977) https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/41/2/143/1934998 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  7. (Moore, 2010) https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ917394 Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎

  8. (Bloom, et al., 1984) https://uorepiserver-2.redlands.edu/globalassets/depts/student-life/csl/csac-cer-forms/csac-journals--blooms-taxonomy.pdf Jump back up to sentence in which this source was referenced: ↩︎