Collective Strength: The Dangers Of Neglecting Responsibility

Everyone has a group of people they share interests, work and other passions with. It is important for our own personal development. Collective strength gives us security and power that helps us feel good. However, it also conditions us. How many times have we been insecure about a decision, but have given in to social inertia and comforted ourselves by saying that other people made the same decision?

Groups guide our thoughts and our behavior. Secondary socialization  helps us learn social norms. Groups help us face difficulties, but they are also shields that we use to protect ourselves from our bad actions. The problem is when we justify our actions because “others do too”.

Group and identity

We are already part of a collective society from the moment we are born. We are members of a community that includes a large number of people. But as we grow, we do not identify society as our group. We begin to see ourselves as a different person. That is why we spend a large part of our lives looking for people we feel safe with.

Within our personal and moral development  , the collective constitutes our identity and it is especially important in adolescence. Parents stop being our guides and become part of the background. We look for other sources of knowledge, and that’s how we end up with a group of colleagues to consolidate our personality.

Collective strength and relaxation

We continue with what we mentioned above, our individual identity is transformed into a collective identity. We no longer see ourselves as individuals with our own conscience, but as part of different groups. In other words, we lose some of our self-awareness and allow ourselves to follow the flow, sometimes controlled by what others do. This is a result of collective strength.

This is a disadvantage since we delegate the criteria and responsibility for our actions to others. It also becomes a problem when our actions are antisocial and are the opposite of societal norms.

Relaxation occurs as a loss of such self-awareness where individuals avoid their singular identity. The responsibility does not fall on their actions as individuals, but as part of the collective to which they belong.

The responsibility then falls on the other members of that collective. “I have behaved badly, but everyone else has done the same.” Therefore, our action becomes less offensive to us since we did not cause the consequences that individuals and others also participated.

The phenomenon becomes more intense when we are covered by others. Physical anonymity helps us maintain a state of invisibility for the rest of the world. Therefore, the responsibility is diluted and it is more difficult to feel guilty for one’s own actions. In the end, no one knows who we are.

The power of the situation

The power of the situation consists of the first principle of explaining the behavioral changes in spite of the individual’s thoughts on the matter. The context at that time will then govern the way we behave.

The Asch experiment is a perfect example of this. It consisted of exposing a group of people to a test in which they had to find a solution to a particular problem. In the experiment, many of the participants were “together” and had to find a solution that worked correctly for the rest of the group. A large proportion of the participants who were not in a group stated incorrect answers in order not to disagree with those who were together.

This shows that  what others think about us is important and we adapt our behavior to the group’s wishes. We act in accordance with what we believe our group or our colleagues expect of us. For example, in the Asch experiment, many of the participants were sure the answer they gave was not correct, but they preferred acceptance over being right.

Groups are a part of us, they change us and we influence them too. We share interests and improve our ability to relate to other groups. However, peer pressure dilutes the perception of our bad actions. The doctrine that results is “if one goes down, we all go down together.”