the.com/group dynamics
the physics of people pretending they made up their own minds.
means the study of how individuals behave, decide, and change when placed inside a group rather than alone.
from coined by psychologist kurt lewin in the 1940s, who argued a group is more than the sum of its members, it has its own forces, tensions, and pulls, like a field in physics but made of people.
lewin's termborrowed from field theory in physics, literally
groupthink costnamed later, blamed for the bay of pigs disaster
risky shiftgroups often decide riskier than any member alone
size mattersadd one person, dynamics change nonlinearly, not gradually
for instance
asch conformity experiments — 1951, people denied obvious facts to match group answers
stanford prison experiment — 1971, roles reshaped behavior within days, no orders needed
apollo 13 mission control — 1970, group problem-solving under pressure saved three lives
jonestown — 1978, group cohesion curdled into mass obedience and death