Have you ever been in a group and privately believed something while sure the rest of the group believed the opposite? Remember that time at the fancy restaurant you were sure the food was terrible but were unwilling to speak up because no one else did? You assumed they thought the food wonderful but others probably thought the same as you. Often many in the group actually are in agreement with you but feel the same way you do…they alone have this belief. No one shares their thoughts because they incorrectly believe everyone else shares the opposite opinion. It happens quite often.
Recently during lunch a long time client started out by telling me “I’m probably going to offend you but I want to share my thoughts about something.” Of course I got nervous and wondered what this long time client…who had become a very good friend…was going to say.
To my surprise, he gave a very detailed overview of his political beliefs and began talking about the state of the government. To his surprise, with minor differences, I fully agreed with everything he said.
The very next day while reading Pacific Standard Magazine, in the article Alone With Everyone Else, I learned this is a well known phenomenon. In 1931 psychologists Daniel Katz and Floyd Allport gave it a wonderful name: pluralistic ignorance.
Pluralistic Ignorance: thinking that everyone else in a group believes the opposite of you when, in fact, they don’t.
In the political world this leads to bad policy hanging on longer than it should due to the belief that everyone agrees with it…when, in fact, individually many are in opposition. In the business world it leads to an inability to correct bad practices in the belief that everyone else thinks they’re the best practices.
Pluralistic ignorance leads to groups often having group belief quite at divergence from actual beliefs of the group members. Members feel they can’t speak up and so go along with policies and actions they find uncomfortable or even abhorrent. As a group and as a society we thus do things that few agree with and many would like to see changed.
Keeping your opinions to yourself can, in fact, lead to the wrong decision, the wrong action, the wrong result.
Fight pluralistic ignorance. Encourage all to share their ideas in an open and honest way. Gather opinions widely and discover what people really think. And as for yourself, find out if others really do agree with you or are just nodding their heads in order to keep their mouth shut.