Groupthink: rationalizing irresponsibility

Two good buddies, George and Cary, meet for dinner one evening. The previous night they had been out on a hedonistic foray, thoroughly enjoying the company of attractive young women and squandering a good portion of their incomes.

George, still a young man in his late twenties, turns to his pal Cary and says, “Boy, I can’t believe we did all of that last night. That was really wild!”

“Yes, it was quite an experience,” replied Cary, in his usual reserved, soft-spoken manner, prompting George to recall exactly what Cary had done the previous night.

“I especially can’t believe what you did last night, Cary. You surprised me. I mean, you are normally a very mild-mannered person, but last night you were a raving party animal.”

“Was I, really?” replied Cary, rather indifferently.

“You sure were! At least I had an excuse: I was drunk. You, on the other hand, were perfectly sober.”

“Yes, but you remember all of the sordid details, don’t you? So you could not really have been that drunk, could you now, George?”

“Well, yes, but I would not do those things if I had not been drinking. Drinking eases the natural inhibitions, you see.”

Cary, thinking to himself: “Ah, yes, I see. So you deliberately drink in order to work up the courage to do the things you want to do, but will not do, while you are perfectly sober? Isn’t that correct? As you said, at least drinking gives you a convenient excuse.”

Cary, actually replies: “Well, as a matter of fact, I went out the night before we went out, and I actually had a pretty good time sober and on my own–well, on my own except for the girls.”

“What?!” replies George in tones of outrage and indignation. “You actually went to all of those strip joints and Karaoke clubs all by yourself? Man, that’s kind of strange. I mean, rather sick and perverted, don’t you think?”

“Now wait a minute,” protests Cary, “Let me get this straight. Do you mean to tell me that if I go to a brothel completely sober and all by myself, knowing full well what I want and what I am willing to pay, I am sick, depraved and perverted?

“But, on the other hand, if I go while somewhat intoxicated, in a drunken stupor, and with a whole bunch of other guys tagging along–college fraternity buddies, for example–then that’s completely different? Then that’s OK? That’s just being ‘one of the guys’? You know, ‘boys will be boys’–that sort of thing? Perfectly legitimate and tolerable, if not barely respectable?”

“That’s exactly what I am telling you,” says George. “The group makes everything all right. It diffuses individual responsibility and offers a kind of limited moral immunity.”