I personally think that it's this idea of group think. In this documentary we see that if you had the ability to help someone you would be less likely to help than you would if you were with a group of people. However the environment and the person you put in a situation also play a factor to how they react to situations. One example that supports my idea is that when people are taking a survey in class and you are asked to raise your hand, most students would look around the class room before they respond. I think the process students have in there head is if there the only one that raises their hand than they would be judged or looked at differently.
Another example is going back into history and how people reacted to the Pearl Harbor bombing. We see that despite the warnings of a potential invasion many senior officers shrugged the warning because they thought that Japanese wouldn't dare attack because they would recognize the futility of war with the US. Putting this idea of no threat into peoples heads. And even in the after math the US puts this group think stereotype that anybody that was Japanese or Japanese decent was now a enemy or threat.
So we see that this psychological phenomenon of group think leads people to make irrational or dysfunctional decisions.
I agree with your thesis, many people act impulsively due to group think and the phenomena of a large-scale mob or tribe. Many people feel as if they must harbor a sense of belonging, and I think it is interesting how you brought up contemporary classrooms. It is true many people look around the room before raising their hand, which completely argues in favor of group think leading to ultimate decisions. I also think this shows the indecisiveness of true human beings.
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