MORAL PSYCHOLOGY - Part 2 - Our Values and Groupthink

Values, Emotions, Judgments, Reasoning, and Behaviors

PART 2 - OUR VALUES AND GROUPTHINK

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This is Part 2 of a series discussing the psychology of morality. The question that prompted this series is the oft-asked “How can anyone actually vote/support/work for Donald Trump, especially after living through his first term?”

During this discussion of morality, I will preferentially use the terms “values,” “reasoning,” and “behaviors” when referring to "intentions, decisions and actions," respectively, as these more commonly used words seem to capture the essence of the concepts in more familiar language.

Following is a list of many common personal values:

• Altruism is selflessness for the greater good of society

• Dependable is the being trustworthy or reliable

• Integrity is honesty, and doing the right thing

• Generous is giving more than necessary or expected

• Gratitude is appreciating what you have

• Education means you love the pursuit of knowledge

• Creative the expressive part of human nature

• Self-respect is caring about yourself and not tolerating disrespect

• Uniqueness means you cherish your individuality

• Open-mindedness is openness to new perspectives

• Personal growth means trying to better yourself

• Independence means to be self-sufficient

• Honesty means free of deceit and untruthfulness

• Accountability is taking ownership and responsibility for yourself

• Authenticity is being your true self despite judgment

• Loyalty is demonstrating firm and constant support

• Self-reflection is self-awareness and introspection

• Humility is staying down-to-earth and real

• Justice is standing up for what's right

• Compassion is sympathy and concern for others’ sufferings or misfortunes

• Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another

This is obviously a long - and incomplete - list of personal values from which you can make your own claims. And of course, each person will have varying degrees of affinity for each of these values. For instance, a person may have a strong sense of independence, but have much less empathy for the plight of others’ difficulties. In fact, I would dare say that it’s not common at all to feel, and therefore exhibit, different degrees of affinity for different values. It’s just part of our humanity.

VALUES, REASONING, BEHAVIORS

Remember, morality categorizes intentions (values), decisions (reasoning), and actions (behaviors) into those that are right, and those that are wrong. Joyce Vance assumes a person’s values as decent, but then their reasoning and behaviors that follow as being less than virtuous. How does a person get from “here” to “there?”

Enter “reasoning.” Somewhere along the way, influences and reasoning modify our personal values as they eventually become behaviors. And behaviors demonstrate the person’s values.

VALUES AND REASONING

So, in an effort to tease out a person’s “morality,” one must first try to determine the values on which their reasoning and behaviors are based.

Jack Hopkins posits that “In the age of social media — and hyper-connectedness — we like to think of ourselves as independent thinkers…” (2)

However, we are anything but immune to manipulation. We have an inherent need to belong, to find security in groups of others. It’s simply instinctive.

Hopkins concludes: “Our brains are wired to crave approval… [and] when politics becomes identity, facts become irrelevant.”

Recently, Melania Trump had a cameo on the White House lawn, where she read a speech warning that social media can be used to brainwash people: “AI and social media are digital candy for the next generation — sweet, addictive, and capable of shaping beliefs, emotions, and even causing harm.”

Yup.

This “tribal loyalty,” as Hopkins calls it, is anything but harmless. A couple descriptions of this phenomenon may be attributed to psychological principles known as “Groupthink.”

GROUPTHINK

Groupthink is “The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.” [Oxford Languages]

Pioneered by American psychologist Irving Janis, groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. A group may foster agreement among its members to minimize conflict, and reach consensus without critical evaluation.

This consensus often results in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against outgroups.” We frequently see this dehumanization displayed against immigrants who are “different than us.” They have often been unfairly describing as criminals, rapists, violent, etc. We all remember hearing “They’re eating the dawgs!” without any evidence.

A summary of Janis’ symptoms of groupthink are:

Delusions of the group’s power and morality

• Illusions of invulnerability and unquestioned belief in the group’s morality may encourage members’ risk taking behavior and ignoring the consequences of their actions

Closed-mindedness

• Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, impotent, or stupid, “less than”

Pressures toward uniformity

• Self-censorship of ideas that deviate from group mainstream consensus, where silence is viewed as complicity. Members who question the group are considered disloyal.

As you can see, the influence of groupthink, “tribal loyalty,” has immense consequences on the beliefs and actual morality of people, and can even lead to modifying the individual’s moral reasoning and behaviors.

So, as you can readily understand, influences from groups, and those with whom they are associated, will inevitably alter their values through their moral reasoning and decision making processes.

Part 3 will look at other influences that affect our moral reasoning and behaviors.

Endnote: 2. Jack Hopkins is host of The Jack Hopkins Show podcast, Former Republican, Now my “party” is Democracy, Navy Veteran