Dangers of Group Thinking in Doris Lessing’s “Group Minds”
In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing ponders the problem of group thinking in society.
While people living in free societies often think that they are making their own decisions, writes
Lessing, most actually follow the crowd. Although Lessing explains that there are various
reasons behind this behavior, among them the social nature of human beings, she finds this
behavior problematic and dangerous.
Group thinking is not always a negative, according to Lessing. First, most human beings are
“social animals” (Lessing 1) and feel the need to belong to some kind of group or groups.
Groups are generally formed on the basis of some shared interest or interests, whether political,
familial, or social. Thus, people within groups tend to share similar viewpoints or interests.
Second, people who do not belong to groups are usually seen by society as “peculiar or selfish
or worse” (Lessing 1). Finally, people tend to join groups that make them feel comfortable and
that accept them and their viewpoints, which, according to Lessing, is not a dangerous kind of
group thinking.
However, the problem for Lessing is that too many people change their own opinions or thinking
to conform to group thinking, for fear of being judged or rejected by the group. The danger lies
in the fact that many people do not realize that they are being influenced by group thinking. The
typical person thinks “my mind is my own” and “my opinions are chosen by me” (Lessing 1).
They have no idea how much their opinions and decisions are influenced by group opinion.
“People in the West therefore may go through their entire lives never thinking to analyze this
very flattering picture, and as a result are helpless against all kinds of pressures on them to
conform in many kinds of ways” (Lessing 1).
Lessing explains that many experiments have been done that show the majority of people giving
in to group pressure no matter how wrong the group seems to be.