Attribution Error Is the Tendency Essay

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However, it is more comforting to think that we as individuals have control over our health and can prevent illness through personal responsibility. This means we have no responsibility to extend greater healthcare coverage to others who do not have insurance as presumably they have not 'worked hard' enough to deserve such a benefit.

Question 2

Instinctively it might seem as if "the greater the cohesiveness or solidarity of a group, the better its decisions will be." Common sense suggests that cohesiveness produces a greater sense of agreement and solidarity. It is easier to enforce a decision that is made in a unified manner. But the problem with solidarity is the phenomenon known as 'groupthink' or the assumption that if the other members of the group think something is right, than it is correct.

Human beings are social animals, and the need to please others and to receive support is hard-wired into the human psyche. Furthermore, it can be very difficult to assume that others are wrong, even if you believe you are right even on factual matters: one study of a group found that, when shown two obviously different-sized lines, people still tended to agree with planted confederates in the room that said the two lines were the same. The risks of groupthink increase tremendously with more subjective decisions.

Groupthink increases exponentially when individuals are of similar backgrounds, and of a similar culture. It makes it easier to have a sense of insulation from the rest of the world, and to judge others in a quick and uncritical fashion. The group's decisions seem supremely rational because no one with a differing opinion is present to challenge such rationality, and the presence of other like-minded people creates an illusion of invincibility and unanimity (What is groupthink, 2010, PSYSR).

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However, if the group were exposed to challenges and other opinions, this illusion would be shattered -- and a better, more informed decision might be made.

Groupthink is often seen in the military or other organizations with strongly cohesive decision-making protocols and rigid hierarchies. Groupthink is often cited as one of the reasons that many major foreign policy disasters have occurred over the course of the history of the United States. During the Vietnam War, instead of critically analyzing the individual particulars of the conflict, the 'domino theory' of communism was assumed to be true, universally, for all nations undergoing civil conflicts. The pressure of having to make split-second or high-stress decisions, as often occurs in the military or politics, can further cause members of the group to copy one another's irrational and ill-informed patterns of thinking.

Groupthink was recently seen in the years of subprime lending that occurred during the housing bubble, before the 2009 market meltdown. Many have since asked how financially astute individuals could believe that the economic bubble would never pop, and how it could possibly could have seemed like a good idea to lend large sums of money to individuals with questionable credit histories. However, because everyone within the industry was doing this, it was assumed to be 'okay.' The similarity of background and cohesiveness of outlook and actions created a repeating pattern of bad decision-making. No one wanted to be 'left out' of the ability to make money, and questioning the assumptions that gave rise to the housing bubble seemed foolishly cautious or paranoid. A hermetically sealed cultural bubble of a circle of intimates invariably screens out unpleasant information......

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