Institutional Groupthink

"Besides," I continued, "'bad' things can have many advantages. For example, I was the odd-one-out in the Aussie tech industry ten years ago because there were hardly any women. Being the odd-one-out meant I saw the world differently and had different ideas. In business, I identified different problems in the market that men hadn't noticed or didn't understand.

That's why cognitively diverse teams have a creative advantage, and groupthink creates bubbles. Put a bunch of men together in a team, who all went to the same school and were raised in the same culture and dress the same way and live the same lifestyle and are interested in the same things… well, they're probably all going to have the same ideas, aren't they? They're going to all agree that their ideas are good because everyone else's ideas were their ideas, too.

And then they chortle and pat themselves on the back for how clever they are. They work their way up the organization until they are running it, and they're hiring people along the way whom they like. And of course they like people who are similar to them, with similar opinions, because that is comfortable. People with similar opinions will continue confirming their own worldview; will continue telling them the story they like to hear: the metaphorical tale of the naked women in the communal shower.

Pretty soon, you have an entire institution built up with everyone thinking the same; everyone talking the same; everyone agreeing. Their manifesto says, 'We think differently. We challenge paradigms. We innovate.'

Then, a black sheep —say, a female from a completely different background and entirely different interests and perspectives — is attracted to that manifesto. This woman joins the company and speaks her mind. Her ideas are not popular. She's telling these men that women don't make out in communal showers, and the men don't want to hear it. It's uncomfortable. Don't ruin the fantasy! We're not wrong about this! We're very clever, and we know what's true! 'Women absolutely do make out in communal showers!' they scream.

The black sheep is looking at all the men, thinking they are mad. And all the men are looking at her, thinking she is an idiot because everyone knows that women make out in communal showers.

And so, frustrated, the black sheep never progresses up the organization's ranks. She never hires people like her. She just leaves altogether. As she's walking out, she notices a whole bunch of new recruits, joining — all men who believe that women make out in communal showers. All so far from the truth. All completely delusional, and yet able to safely operate within their groupthink bubble.

That's what an institution looks like: a big mass of groupthink. The bigger the mass, the stronger its gravitational pull, attracting like-minded people and ideas and resources to the institution, so it can maintain its concept of itself.

Think about why that might be. If you are a man in an institution, and everyone you see around you is also a man, your brain is constantly taking in information and forming a model of its reality — of what it believes to be true. If you're in a groupthink institution like this, then you're modeling a reality where, say, white men have good ideas. If you were to mathematically predict who will have good ideas, your Bayesian brain would spit out 'white man' as the answer — not because that answer is true, but because that's the reality your brain has mathematically modeled. This is how cognitive bias forms.

So if your consciousness has modeled a reality whereby you believe the only people adding value are white men, and then a black sheep comes along, is there any wonder you think she is a crazy idiot? All the information entering your senses tells you you are right, and she is wrong. The black sheep is a giant walking prediction error for you — she causes a gap between what your internal model of reality believes to be true, and what the information entering your senses tells you is true. She causes you to think and question your assumptions, but you're already so sure that you are right.

In fact, you've never received any information before that suggests that you might be wrong. The only information you're ever subjected to is the information you agree with. You're very, very safe, locked up inside your echo chamber. Absolutely fucking delusional, but quite safe and comfortable for now. Eventually, someone from outside your institution will pop the bubble. Until then, you can just float around and be a lazy thinker, because no one else is challenging you to do anything other than that."

"You're talking about universities, aren't you?" Zac asked with a knowing smile on his face.

I laughed. "Is it that obvious? But seriously — do you see the holographic pattern, here? An institution is like a giant ball of something in particular. It's a 'frozen vortice of thought'; a whirlpool with its own attractive pull, just like a planet or a black hole."

"Oh yeah," Zac said. "So businesses and institutions are whirlpools, too?"

"Yes. And a whirlpool attracts resources that reinforce its concept of itself."

"What do you mean by 'its concept of itself'?"