Fuelled by ‘groupthink’, nonsensical views find a home in Malaysia

 

In 1979, a social psychologist, who focused on conducting research on human behaviour, Irwing L Janis, coined the term “groupthink”.

I believe that we need to fully understand this psychological phenomenon. Mainly, because in Malaysia, it often seems like the nation operates on groupthink bordering on mass hysteria.

Groupthink occurs when people form a quick opinion that matches the group consensus, rather than actually critically evaluating the information in front of them.

This happens all the time in Malaysia.

Citizens who are opposed to any decision or the predominant opinions in the country, commonly remain quiet. We are programmed to think that it is better to “shut-up” and keep the peace, rather than to speak up and potentially disrupt the “harmony” in our country.

Now, some of you might say that groupthink is okay for the collective good of the nation. Afterall, for national unity, we have to find common ground.

Our politicians like to constantly remind us about this being the reason why the “social-contract” was apparently agreed upon by our community leaders at the time of our independence. They claim that our forefathers agreed to this rather naïve notion because of the common good, and for nation building.

But there are real problematic issues associated with groupthink.

With groupthink, people tend to ignore important information and this leads to poor decisions. While this is damaging even in minor situations, it can have serious ramifications when it impacts our national fabric.

For example, it is already quite clear that Malaysia is lagging behind our neighbours in innovation. If you scroll through the many business analyses readily available, it is apparent. We are the third richest country in Southeast Asia, yet we struggle with new ideas and technology.

For example, in business parlance, a “unicorn” is a privately held start-up company valued at over US$1 billion. This mythical animal was chosen because it represents the statistical rarity of such businesses.

In 2021, China had 133 of these unicorns, India managed to develop 33, and South Korea 11. If we look around our own neighbourhood, Indonesia has five such companies, Singapore has three and the Philippines has one unicorn company.

Unsurprisingly, Malaysia has yet to incubate one. Why? Perhaps due to our penchant for groupthink?

Groupthink suppresses individual opinions and creative thought. The hallmark of innovation is efficient problem-solving. In Malaysia creative thinking is shunned for fear of generating “insensitive” thoughts that may cause fault lines in our “national unity”.

The next pitfall of groupthink is that it actively drives Malaysians to self-censor.

If you are indoctrinated to seek consensus and agreement above all else, it means you will constantly be compromising. Consequently, how can you adequately assess the potential risks or benefits of any decision for our national growth?

Tough decisions will have to be watered down for harmony and because we have to make “everyone happy”. In this process, our nation breeds nonsensically polarised notions.

Let’s take the recent controversy on the unilateral conversion of three children without their mother’s knowledge. The kids were registered as Muslims by a particular state’s religious authority, without the mother being present.

This happened notwithstanding the 2018 Federal Court ruling that the consent of both parents was needed for the conversion of any child under the age of 18 to another religion.

Polarising discussions took up much of the national dialogue on the illegality of this move, and conversely the religious authorities argued that what they did was absolutely legal in their state.

While eventually, the courts allowed the mother to take back custody of her children, what was so telling was the self-censorship of government politicians, and even most of the opposition politicians.

Save for a few daring firebrand members of parliament, everyone else stayed silent.

Why? Because groupthink dictates that you must not rock the boat. Discussions about religion in Malaysia are taboo. If these politicians say the wrong thing (or sometimes the right thing) they fear upsetting their voter bank. So, they practice self-censorship.

Better to remain conspicuously silent than say something meaningful but contentious, right?

Groupthink also impacts the current roll-out of vaccinations.

If you do not question the science, the business math, or the data presented, you belong to the conformist “good-citizen” groupthink category.

If are you are doubtful because you might think that the science is sketchy, the math shows benefit for certain elites, and the data presented seems to be incongruous, you will instantaneously be dismissed to the “bad-citizen” groupthink category.

It doesn’t matter if you have no fundamental objection to being vaccinated. In fact, like most Malaysians, you’ve had a few jabs already. But if you go against the prevalent groupthink by asking even the most inoffensive question, you will be “cancelled”.

So, you remain silent.

Malaysians need to find ways to reduce the influence of groupthink, so we can actually reflect and critically evaluate information before deciding on anything. And while we re-learn how to do this, we need to be assured of a safe emotional environment in our country.

The first challenge is to demand that we are given the opportunity to express our own ideas and be allowed to argue against ideas that have already been proposed.

Our leaders cannot decide to muzzle certain people if they have an alternative perspective or hide behind the veneer of saying that some topics are just off limits, because they are too “sensitive”.

If we want to stop allowing nonsensical views to find a home in Malaysia, we should put a stop to groupthink. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.