Groupthink

Biological Parallel

When ant colonies face split decisions about nest relocation, dissenting scouts who find superior sites sometimes abandon their discoveries to join the majority consensus, even when their site is objectively better. This premature convergence speeds decision-making but sacrifices accuracy—a trade-off that works when rapid coordination matters more than optimal choices. Groupthink is the cost of consensus mechanisms: social cohesion evolved to override individual information when group unity was ancestrally critical for survival.