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UNDERSTANDING UNANIMITY PARADOX AND HOW TO EFFECTIVELY HANDLE SUCH SITUATIONS
UNDERSTANDING UNANIMITY PARADOX AND HOW TO EFFECTIVELY HANDLE SUCH SITUATIONS
A quote famously attributed to Benjamin Franklin says that “when everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking”.

When I first read it, I paused for a second and re-read it.

What do you mean by that, I thought to myself?

Thinking is supposed to be an action, isn’t it? And each one’s mind thinks differently. When each one’s thought is the same as the other, it means that the thought is inherently biased or influenced. It’s not thinking, it’s falling in line, or as I’d like to say more harshly, parroting someone’s lines.

Thankfully, our ancestors identified that all is not well when everyone parrots the same line. And so, they came up with what we call the Unanimity paradox, ie. they refused to accept something that is “too good to be true”. Imagine when all teachers in school find a child worthless, there must be some error in the way teachers in general view and judge children. By this rule, the child must be really special and gifted for no one finds anything worthwhile in him.

Statistics takes this into consideration when researchers begin an experiment by setting their benchmarks for errors occurring in the data collection. That way, they factor in the possibility of something not being right. But how does this reflect in our day-to-day life?

Imagine an office setting where there’s one manager and say, 100 employees. Every time the boss proposes something, all the employees agree to it. If the manager says let’s do it this way, everyone nods their heads in agreement. Then the manager says let’s go-to place ‘x’ for a picnic and everyone says “Yay, picnic to X”. Soon, the manager says we’re shifting to a new location and the whole office agrees. Would you, as a neutral observer, find this behavior agreeable? Would you even find it believable? I wouldn’t. Because the human mind has the capacity to think in myriad ways and as many heads, that many thoughts and opinions. When there is no diversity in thought, no deviation in thinking patterns, it clearly indicates one of the following-

  • that all employees accept the boss and his opinion without opposing
  • that no one thinks and the boss alone thinks for everyone
  • that the employees fear the boss and hence toe his line
  • that they do not feel the need for some divergent thought since it will be rejected anyway, so why express anyway
  • that they are under duress to do so
  • that they have no other alternative in life than to work but they would rebel the moment they find a better opportunity

It is indeed strange that humans who love unanimity otherwise, often raise eyebrows when it comes in absolute terms. So, in the above case, the boss would expect a few questions to be raised at least, if not dissent or opposition. In a democracy, hence, some amount of dissent is always needed to prevent this absolutism from creeping in. Read more....