Beware of Groupthink – An Unfortunate Phenomenon in Youth Sports
One of the main purposes of this blog is... well, quite frankly... to be a means for me to continue coaching. Coaching is a passion that burns inside of me and I want to keep contributing in this way, whether it be encouraging for players, parents, or coaches. I suppose that's why I went with the (admittedly kind of sarcastic) title "Daddy Ball" for the blog. It sort of covers all those people, and it sort of creates a subtle discomfort, not knowing exactly how we should feel about such a title.
This describes much of the experience of team sports. Inevitably, team sports create some level of discomfort, and we all have to figure out how to deal with it. The topic I am about to address will indeed create some discomfort. Let it. Don't shy away from it. If it is uncomfortable because you are guilty, then choose to get better. You can. I can. We all can... if we WANT to. And when we get better at things such as the subject I will address in this post, then the entire culture of youth sports will get better.
THAT is my goal. So, let's dig in and get ready to hit this fastball out of the park!
What is "groupthink?" Yes, it is an actual word. It's a word that was first created by a social psychologist named Irving Janis in 1972. One way to describe it is, groupthink comes about when a group of people encourage the conformity of an opinion instead of trying to find the best solution. Irving Janis describes it like this: groupthink occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment.”
Group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment.
This is fascinating to me. It's fascinating because I see it ALL the time, literally EVERY day. All it takes is one scroll down through your social media timeline and you will find it.
For example (hypothetically, although it is hard to use hypothetical examples of this because there are so many varieties of real and actual instances of this, which means any hypothetical example will likely come way too close to something you've actually seen)... still, here's a hypothetical example. Suppose you are scrolling down through your Facebook timeline and you see a post that has garnered a lot of comments. It piques your interest, and so you read the post. It says something like this:
My son's teacher has required all the students in her class to use yellow #2 lead pencils. We don't have any yellow #2 lead pencils at our house and so now we have to drive to the store to buy some. We have plenty of mechanical pencils, which is my son's pencil of choice. But NO... this teacher wants everyone to use a #2 lead pencil (and he said she sounded really mean when she told them this). Has anyone else had this teacher? Is this the kind of inconvenience I should expect from her all year? I feel like just sending him to school with the pencils we have. I can't go buying more pencils just because this one teacher has some specific affinity for a yellow #2 lead pencil.
Now, of course, this sounds like a silly example (it's meant to sound silly, because in reality most of the things we get so bent out of shape over on social media are silly... when compared to the grand scheme of things). Yet, posts like these induce 20, 30, sometimes upwards of 60+ replies. All sorts of people jump on to express their disdain for that particular teacher. Some share their own experiences. Some have never even met the teacher, but because they know and love the person who posted the original message, they affirm that parent by agreeing with how stupid the teacher is.
After a number of these kinds of comments, the original poster feels justified and legitimized in their rant, regardless of how ridiculous it was or how inaccurate it was, or how damaging it was to the reputation of another. And... perhaps if the person who made the original post had the mental efficiency to actually test the reality of the situation (before taking to social media), they would have found that the teacher actually told all the students that they would "need a yellow #2 lead pencil for some of the tests they will be taking throughout the year, and so you should go ahead and get some yellow #2 lead pencils to bring in to class," which doesn't sound unreasonable (or mean). Understanding the full and complete facts of any given situation certainly help us to make better moral judgments in how we respond to those situations.
Groupthink is harmful to people. And it is ultimately, quite frankly, more harmful to those who participate, in the sense that trust is lost. It's hard to trust someone who doesn't think for themselves, who constantly seeks validation and affirmation from the "comment" section of their social media feeds.
As a coach, I have been the victim of the groupthink mentality more than once. A mom or a dad becomes frustrated because their son isn't playing as much as they feel he should (which is usually the number one reason for frustrated social media posts in the context of sports... playing time). I understand, I really do. We love our kids. They are the only kids on that team that we see regularly at the dinner table, at bedtime, and in the mornings. We see their pain. We see their hard work and their determination. We see their discouragement whenever that hard work isn't rewarded with playing time. I get it.
But rather than speaking with our children about how to handle those kinds of disappointments with dignity, courage and honor, we too often resort to social media. Rather than encouraging them to use the experience as an opportunity to grow in their understanding of "team" and how to be the best teammate they can be even when things are not going their way, we instead complain within earshot of them about how angry we are at the coach; or maybe some parents just flat out tell their kids that their coach is an idiot for not playing them. But way too many seek to find solace and comfort from the groupthink tank of social media.
I (along with many other coaches) have been the ambiguous subject of many social media posts over the years, describing how blind we are to true talent and dedication... how unfair we are... how we show favoritism... and a barrage of other accusations.
Then comes the groupthink. The comments start rolling in. People from all over the country are now providing their input on my coaching decisions. They may have never seen a single game. They couldn't name any of the other players on our team. But they know for a fact that I must be an idiot because I disappointed their friends.
Whenever a person becomes affected by groupthink, they start to limit their own thinking and they ignore any alternative perspective. Irving Janis identified eight symptoms of groupthink. When these symptoms exist, there is a reasonable chance that groupthink will happen:
Illusion of invulnerability – Groupthink creates excessive optimism that might be completely unfounded in reality.
Collective rationalization – Participants of groupthink discredit warnings to the contrary and do not reconsider their assumptions.
Belief in inherent morality – Participants in groupthink believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their words or actions.
Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of the “enemy” or the subject of the complaints make any effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.
Direct pressure on dissenters – In the rare occasion that someone should bring up a contrasting view to the groupthink, they are quickly shot down.
Self-censorship – Any personal doubts or concerns one might have about the group consensus are oppressed rather than given consideration.
Illusion of unanimity – People who participate in groupthink often assume their views are shared among a majority of people, when in fact those opinions are just the loudest, and their groupthink is simply creating an illusion that it's the majority.
Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Participants in groupthink protect the group and the originator from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s view, words and actions.
Affirmations and validation brought on by groupthink tend to lead to carelessness and irrational thinking, because the nature of the groupthink experience is a failure to consider all alternatives and/or other perspectives that could potentially make our opinions on the matter seem wrong or out of line. Ultimately, any decisions that are shaped by groupthink have low probability of achieving successful outcomes. Little good ever comes from groupthink.
Groupthink is a phenomenon that has been around for as long as people have had social lives, but it's a lot easier to recognize in the days of social media, and if we're not careful it can easily grow out of control. I didn't recognize it before, perhaps because I had no name for it. So, I wasn't as aware of it or its damaging effects. Now, it is easy for me to spot. It's like when a person buys a lime green VW bug. You never saw one lime green VW bug before the day you bought yours, but now you see them all the time, everywhere. They were always there before, you just didn't have a frame of reference for them in your mind. Once you have a reason to notice them, now your mind picks up on them and points them out to you.
That is what I am hoping this post will do. I hope you will recognize when you see groupthink, and then you will do the even harder work of ignoring it, choosing not to participate, or even ask others to consider not participating. It is a harmful thing. It is something that dumbs us all down, as we lose mental efficiency (we stop thinking for ourselves), we stop reality testing (we fail to test everyone's "expert" opinions with the reality of the situation), and we ultimately end up lacking moral judgment (we make decisions based on others' judgment and moral character rather than our own discernment and convictions).
You BE you. Think. Research. Pause before you speak. Don't just toss your issue out in the open and allow it to get caught in the whirlwind of groupthink. It rarely ever helps.
When you see it on your timeline, turn away. Stop. Don't participate. No good or positive result will ever come from you complaining about your kid's coach online. I can't think of a single time when any good has come from it.
Maybe someone right now is thinking, "I can tell you what good comes from it... I feel better. I have to have some place to vent my frustration, and that's as good a place as any. And when people agree with me, it makes me feel better."
May I be so bold as to suggest... that is a pitiful reason to engage in or initiate a post that creates groupthink. You feel good by doing something that creates more negativity in the world? You feel good by saying something that negatively sways another's opinion about someone they've never even met?
Why are our feelings so important? Let's find more productive ways to "vent." Go for a walk. Go for a run. Go to the gym and toss around some heavy weights. Go hit a punching bag and imagine it's my face 😳 (or whoever the coach is that you are angry with). At least then you are only including yourself in your negativity.
Actually, one of the BEST ways to battle negative feelings and the temptation to want to post public venting rants that suck people into groupthink is GRATITUDE. Before you start ranting, catch yourself. Force yourself to get up from your computer or to put down your phone or whatever device you use to post on social media. Go out for a walk and begin listing some of the things you are thankful for.
Let me tell you, it is really difficult to be a negative person when your heart is filled with gratitude. You will find that you have so much more to be thankful for than to complain about.
I pray about this. This issue is one that I pray for in context of our culture of sports. I love sports. I love coaches. I love parents. I love players. I see SO much value and so many blessings and so many lessons that will inspire lifelong success, and these all come from the many experiences of team sports... both the positive experiences as well as the negative ones. I pray that we all desire to grow and get better at how we respond to all of our experiences.
As always, thanks for reading and especially for sharing!