Something Super Exciting !

This week I noticed something specifically with the Hunahpu tribe, wearing blue. I feel like this episode was full of conflict and high pressure, in the end Drew was, thankfully, voted out; a concept called groupthink mentioned in our book that essentially means the group is thinking way too hard about how to solve their issues that real solutions don’t seem as applicable. The Hunahpu tribe really showed symptoms of developing this problem. There were three aspects that really surfaced this episode which I aligned with our book; To develop groupthink the “group is highly cohesive…as a result members could discourage disagreement , or perceptions of rightness or their competence…”(187). The Hunahpu tribe has been trying to be alliance the whole time, at least the consensus was to try to be honest etc. However some of the team members overestimate how well their teammates get along and Drew completely has dubbed himself “King” by telling not asking everyone that they will vote Kelley out, which trying to tell people what to do gives them two options, to not fight or to fight. So people who are usually passive wouldn’t feel as comfortable speaking up as others willing to fight.

The blue team also has structural flaws that “…inhibit the flow of information…” meaning that because Drew thought that the girls created an alliance they didn’t use their perspectives when making decisions. All the boys thought they were the leader and essentially lost potential to pool from different experiences and knowledge banks as I call them. Lastly, the situation that these groups deal with is extremely volatile . Essentially because they are on TV, millions of people are watching them, their teammates are counting on them the stakes are unusually high and mistakes are more likely to occur. Members, like Keith made rash decisions because he thought Jeremy took the Idol before he could get to it first. He lost an ally and it could possibly have a critical chance of getting him kicked off.

I feel like there were also some symptoms that were expressed more individually mainly came from Drew, but also Jon and Dale. Drew had these symptoms which led to his vote out: invulnerability(he said if you want something done right you got to do it yourself), rationalization(no on else had the balls to ask a stupid question so I will), stereotyping outsiders(he said he didn’t trust the girls to make a good decision), pressure on dissent(when he try’s to force everyone to vote for Kelly and that’s it.). Others like Jon were under and illusion of unanimity thinking that everyone liked Drew because he did.  Lastly Dale expressed Self Censorship because he felt because he wasn’t in the same social group as the younger competitors he needed to agree with them and build some sort of trust otherwise he would get voted out. Even if he agrees with the group plan. He essentially censors himself from possibly giving the group another perspective or solving their issue.