Groupthink is a situation where people decide to think as a cluster and render their individual decision useless. This term was coined by the social psychologist Irving Janis in the years 1972. According to Janis, groupthink is when human beings have set aside their personal beliefs and moved with a group (Janis, 1972). This clustered way of thinking has been seen or witnessed frequently throughout human history. When groupthink takes over a given group of people, those who share a different opinion are forced to keep quiet or ignore the situation. Many of the world’s most renowned worst mistakes, tragedies, genocides, and holocausts have occurred due to groupthink. Historically, people decided not to have their own opinions but rather adhere to group beliefs.
When the German Nazis assumed power, they had already begun anti-Semitic propaganda. This activity was intended to radicalize the whole of Germany and Europe, if possible, to ensure the elimination of Jews. Propaganda and fear factors were used to make the entire country believe that the Jews were lesser human beings and took up opportunities that the Germans were supposed to exploit (Woolf, 2018). German citizens who had lived happily with the Jews as a society suddenly began viewing the Jews as enemies. Hate speech, propaganda, and denial of their basic human rights were some of the problems faced by Jews. Their businesses were looted, some were murdered on the streets, and most of them were sent into concentration camps. This unpleasant occurrence was a situation that the German people would have avoided, but they decided to groupthink. As a result of this groupthink scenario, many Jews were murdered in the concentration camps, and thus, the Holocaust occurred.
References
Janis, I. (1972). Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-policy Decisions and Fiascoes (p. 277). Houghton Mifflin.
Woolf, A. (2018). Groupthink among German, British, American, and Soviet leaders during the Holocaust. Walden University.