After the war he moved to Britain and took British citizenship. He studied psychology at London University of London and in 1967 he became Chair of Social Psychology at the University of Bristol, where he carried out research into intergroup relations.
At that time, the common assumption among psychologists was that extreme prejudice was the result of extreme personality factors. Tajfel did not believe this. He had seen how large numbers of ordinary Germans, not just those with personality outliers, had supported the Nazis and their vicious policies towards Jews. Nazism had had the support of many Germans who would otherwise be considered normal. Tajfel thought that extreme prejudice might be the result of social group processes rather than extreme personality types. In a series of ground-breaking experiments in the 1970s he brought together groups of local boys. At first boys preferred to be in a group with those around them rather than those further away. Tajfel went on to show that just putting people into groups was enough to cause them to discriminate in favour of their own group and against members of other groups. He found that the very act of categorisation by itself produces conflict and discrimination.
Evolution has led us to crave groups. We were raised in tribes which supported and protected us. We want to fit in. Being part of a social group gives us a sense of belonging. There are many benefits to being in a group. The problem is that there is also a powerful force to conform to the ideas, standards and customs of the group.
We belong to groups on Twitter, Facebook, Tik-Tok and LinkedIn. The wide range of social media sites and contributors should mean that we read a wide variety of opinions, but the opposite is generally the case. People dwell in echo-chambers where they read posts which reinforce their own views, opinions and prejudices. This can lead to polarisation which can become extreme. Think of the Trump supporters who believed, in the face of all the evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Or the extreme views of the Covid anti-vaxxers.
Because we are all prey to the forces of group conformity, we need lateral thinking. We must be able to challenge the assumptions and attitudes that everyone else takes for granted. We need to be open-minded and curious. This approach can bear a cost. The lateral thinker is often seen as a heretic, an outsider, a non-conformist. But the benefits can be manifold in freeing our thinking and enabling us to find new, better ideas. We can escape the straitjacket of the crowd.
The lateral thinker is aware of the dangers of obvious thinking. They are on the lookout for ways to combat the tendency to slip into conformity. They strive to sidestep the obvious and find a better and less-trodden path.
Based on a chapter in Lateral Thinking for Every Day by Paul Sloane
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This post was previously published on Destination Innovation.
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