Appropriate for this coming week when it is likely Trump will be indicted!
Groups empower us more than we realize. When I was at Duke Medical Center in a program that merged real life clinical experience with academics as a good many medical schools do today, we were required to have group therapy a couple of times each week. The group contained both genders and were high achievers, focused, and intense. This along with required individual therapy was to help us identify our strengths and weaknesses as we counseled others. It was not unusual to have some crying and others emoting anger with strong feelings during the group therapy. I will never forget the cartoon that was posted on the oak door that led into the room. It showed a group of people leaving group therapy walking in lockstep down a corridor like soldiers in a parade. It was meant to be funny. I didn’t know then that it was an experience with group think. Once you identify with a group, you become a resistance movement to any group outside of yours. Once you say, “us”, you have to refer to the other group as “them.” It is a fundamental fact of psychology and human nature. Our group A was in immediate competition with another group B. That shared experience creates a firm bond among people. If you are in A, you consider group B as an outsider and vice versa. It results in thinking that one group is better and smarter than the other. We see this in teams. We will see it very clearly during March Madness.
There was a recent article in the Yale Alumni News Magazine (March /April 2023) by Rhea Hirshman titled “Don’t Argue. Just talk data.” She was sharing new research on “group clues” done by Alexander Coppock. In essence, if you present information to people, they can disagree with an approach but they can move in a parallel way with the information. He uses the example: “Let’s say we present information that providing free school lunches reduces the dropout rate,” he says: “That information can move both those who start out liking – and those who start out opposing it – to favor it more. They will still disagree, but they will have moved in parallel in the direction of the evidence. A ‘group cue’ is telling someone what others think.”
When “group cue” is present, policy and information cannot be heard or exchanged. An example of this is the recent issue of the debt ceiling. The far right Maga group has identified as such and their position which is to blackmail the Democrats to get their way about budget cuts. They represent their group first which stops persuasive conversation about policy. When we read, “Tucker Carlson and Fox News said…” their opinions immediately stop conversation to reach a consensus with those who don’t agree with them.
We hear statements like we know what the Democrats and Republicans think about an issue. The problem is that policy discussions need to happen between and among people who just so happen to be one political party or another. We have created our own monster. It is partisan politics. It used to be that we knew what the differences was between the Democratic and Republican Parties regarding policy with their respective platforms. Those positions have been blurred thanks, in part, to Trump. He keeps it blurred so that he can create loyalty just to him. He really isn’t a classic Republican which is what we as a nation desperately need.
As long as “group cues” point to perceived positions that represents a group and not individuals, there can’t be true dialogue that is persuasive to create compromise. In essence, sure you may be a Democrat or Republican, but don’t have that be the first thing that comes out of your mouth in a discussion. That is the correction that is needed because it makes our first loyalty to the group and not to the sharing of individual ideas. Maga Republicans helped make McCarthy’s vote for speakership a nightmare with their first identity was as a group and their demands quickly came second. We saw it in broad daylight.
Remember every time you remind people about “us,” you immediately have to call anyone outside the group as “them.” That kills discussion seeking a compromise and enables people to seek power by winning and being seen as better than others. It is a subtle but important distinction! It can erode a democracy.
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