The storming of the Capitol building on January 6th shocked and angered me, as I’m sure it did for most Americans. As I was watching the coverage (which I limited for my mental wellness), I just kept thinking: How is this happening in America?
I’m not going to discuss the politics involved.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how it went from differing views to an attempt to overthrow and do harm to political adversaries. This is what inspired me for this post.
Look at the careers of some of the people being arrested: lawyers, elected officials, teachers, etc. This is not the type of person that some have portrayed this movement to have, which is usually associated with low intellect and conspiracy theorists. As we’ve learned now, this was a diverse group socio-economically, in education levels, and in where they were from. My brain was trying to reconcile how such a cross-section of Americans reached a point where they thought a coup was the answer to their disagreement and anger.
As I mentioned earlier, I had to limit the time I spent watching the news or listening to reports for my mental wellness. With emotional and psychological stress in the heightened state that it’s in around the world, I didn’t want to exacerbate things by emerging myself in it. And you know what - there’s nothing wrong with that! It doesn’t mean I don’t care or that I’m a poor citizen. It means that I am aware of what’s happening while respecting the boundaries I’ve set for myself. (Shameless plug - check out my post about boundaries that’s linked below.)
Research into the question of how disagreements turned into insurrection for this one instance was tricky. There are plenty of articles about the event, but sifting through it to get a psychological perspective was tough. Now, there is not just one reason why this happened, however, I think it can boil down to the danger of groupthink.
“Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible.” Psychology Today
Living in the information age has its advantages and downfalls. Social media falls into both of these categories. On one hand, it is fantastic to find your tribes - those people with the same interests that you can commemorate with. And on the other, we can become so isolated in our worldview that we lose healthy perspectives and empathy. This hyper-segregation in thought and interaction is a steep slippery slope to groupthink and behavior that seemed unheard of can come naturally.
Formal definitions are great but what does that mean in this case? As I’ve said before, I am not a mental health professional and I hope my thoughts are a starting point for others to research on their own. With that disclaimer out of the way, here is how I think the rioters went from complaining about election results to tearing apart a building and calling for the death of our Vice President and Speaker of the House.
The election of 2020 was heated - I think we can all agree on that. Early on, a narrative emerged that called into question the legitimacy of the votes before they’d been cast. This, in essence, gave legitimacy to those that thought that no matter the outcome, the election process was unfair and rigged. Those that believe this sought out venues and people with similar views to discuss and vent - just like we all do when we disagree with something! We want to find comfort and sympathetic ears when we’re upset.
There were a small number of people that began to capitalize and gain momentum with the rigged election believers and those that were just questioning. Their platform? Social media. I’m not going to dig into the dangers of social media right now, but I’ll link some articles. By limiting the input of information to social media, seemingly non-controversial people began to believe most of what was fed to them. They shied away from looking at other perspectives and research.
Before they know what happened, there were so many that were living with these empathy and critical thinking blinders on. Which, from a psychological perspective, was expected and not surprising. Repeating specific phrases and sending a consistent message that there is only one outcome becomes believable and accepted. Once it got to this point, it was simple to whip them into a frenzy causing them to do the unthinkable. This is the danger of unchallenged groupthink.
Understanding the groupthink journey of this group of people does not dismiss them from accountability for their actions. And that goes for all those that break laws - our system should be agnostic toward political views, ethnicity, gender, etc. One day I’ll post about that, but not now.
My hope is that understanding this journey will help us understand how to protect ourselves from falling into the same trap. Losing a sense of empathy and dismissing critical thinking is dangerous. And not just for us individually, but as we’ve seen, us as a society. Yes, we all need to find people that share our views but don’t let that stop you from at least acknowledging the counter perspective. This is how we can build relationships built on civil disagreement rather than blind anger.
Articles & Resources
Does Social Media Cause Groupthink? by Hope Anne Dellastua, Penn State
Far-right digital media paved the way for the riot in Washington by The Economist (author unknown)
Far-right ready to ‘fight and kill in Trump’s name’ by Creede Newton, Al Jazeera
Groupthink by Communication Theory (author unknown)
Groupthink by Psychology Today (author unknown)
People at the US Capitol riot are being identified and losing their jobs by AJ Willingham and Carma Hassan, CNN
Social Media’s Impact on Groupthink by Dikembe Wilkins, News Oasis
Image credit: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters
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