Groupthink

In April 1967, a high school history teacher in Palo Alto, California, faced a difficult question from his students: “How could the German people claim they didn’t know about the Holocaust?” Ron Jones didn’t have a good answer. So he decided to show them. What started as a simple classroom demonstration became a terrifying social experiment. In just five days, Jones created a fascist movement so powerful that students were willing to betray their friends, enforce strict rules, and commit acts of violence—all in the name of the group. ...

It’s a hot summer afternoon in Coleman, Texas. A family is relaxing on the porch, playing dominoes and enjoying the fan. The father-in-law says, “Let’s drive to Abilene for dinner.” Nobody really wants to go. It’s 53 miles away in 104°F heat, in a car without air conditioning. But nobody speaks up. The wife says, “Sounds good to me.” The husband, not wanting to disappoint, says, “Sure, I’m in.” The mother-in-law agrees. ...

We were going to launch the feature on Tuesday. Everyone on the team knew it wasn’t ready. The code was buggy. The UX was confusing. We hadn’t tested the edge cases. One of our engineers literally said in standup, “I’m not sure this is going to work well,” but immediately followed it with, “but I guess everyone else thinks it’s fine.” The PM wanted to hit the deadline. The CEO was excited about the demo. The team had momentum. So we all nodded along. ...