Group Minds Summary and Analysis

Lessing writes that people in democratic societies tend to believe they are free to make their own choices and the worst restriction on them is possibly not having enough money to do what they wish. She adds that this is a flattering misconception, because people live in groups that coerce them to conform in many ways. The problem is not belonging to groups, because humans need companionship, but in not understanding the social laws that drive groups, she said. Lessing describes a "typical" scientific experiment that shows how a group can control the thinking of its members. A group is taken into the researcher's confidence, but one or two people are left in the dark. The group is told to insist, for example, that two boards of unequal length are equal. The minority objects, but after much struggle, they...