groupthink

Groupthink – “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action”From my inference, group think, although at a glance seems absurd where people would easily give up their personal freedom to conform with one another, actually has a basis for it. Firstly, when a new member has just joined a new group, he/she should conform with the other in order to be accepted as a part of the group. Conformity pressure greatly influences a newcomer as he/she will be likely to get into trouble or ostracized by the rest of the group members if he/she expresses dissonant idea (Heylighen, 1992). Though Conformity pressure is relatively irrational as it often rejects adequate knowledge or idea; however, it is unavoidable since it implies that a belief does not vary among individuals. This first step of getting accepted by a group would have a prolong influence to an individual. A person, who at the first stage of adaptation into one group seems compliant would consider to keep such status (or maybe most of it) later so that his/her group members see him/her as a ‘faithful follower’. This is what most probably will contribute to Groupthink in a long term.

Dan “Harry Potter” dates Emma “Hermione Granger”??!!

The above are two interesting and funny videos I had taken from the You tube. First video contains lots and lots of the couple photos (but I doubted the accuracy, since they appeared fake or being made up by someone using photoshop, for example). As I continued to search for more reliable sources to prove the accuracy of the first one, I found the second video. The second one is obviously a made-up video clip, that consists of several clips of both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson during different occasions, such as press conferences, TV talkshows, break during a movie shootings and etc (in the sense that I considered the latter is more reliable than the first video). Both videos might only a mere gossip??? or they are really true (who knows??). But most importantly, there are some factors that we should take into consideration if we want to analyze whether Dan and Emma are really dating..

Well, first of all, the two main characters of Harry Potter movie sequel appear to be almost chat together during some press conferences. However, interestingly Rupert Grint “Ronald Weasley”, the third main character, appear to be secluded from both of them even though the three of them are standing/sitting side by side with one another.  This may contribute to one of the quantitative approach of interpersonal communication, Dyadic primacy, whereby the tendency of interpersonal communication that breaks down to two-person exchanges. Thus, such scenes might draw the public’s curiosity on the status of Dan and Emma, as the public consider them as a natural “paired-up” who have more things to share in common.

 Secondly, both Dan and Emma were almost always seen together, whether it was during the break of movie shooting, CNN press conferences or some TV talkshows. I choose some evidences from these sources because they tend to be more reliable & accurate (as it is more difficult to make up). The closeness may reflect one of the relational formation factors, which is proximity. According to the concept of interpersonal communication, proximity may predispose one to relationship with another that he/she always hangs around with or shares the same space with. Therefore, the fact that Dan and Emma mostly seen hang around or stand close with one another shows that they have a greater likelihood of becoming close friends (or perhaps lovers…)

In summary, I found that both Dyadic primacy and proximity best described both Dan and Emma’s relationship. We may judge how close their relationship based on these two interpersonal communication factors.. Or perhaps if you guys have differing or additional perspectives, feel free to add on….

Audi R8 car ads

Listen to how the advertiser use the song choice..

Watch on how the video plays slowly to emphasize the dramatic effect of the car making process..

Both audio and visual effect illustrate two definitions of non-verbal communication; they are the sender approach and receiver-based approach to non-verbal communication. The ads suggests that non-verbal communication occurs when it intentionally communicates using symbolic non-verbal cues, plus it also suggests that non-verbal communication only occurs when a receiver assigns meaning to it and thus intrepreting it.

In conclusion, an ads can convey different meaning to different people and more importantly different advertiser may assign different meaning to his/her advertisement.

Toyota amuzzing advertisement!

This video suggests that nonverbal communication accentuates the part of verbal message… The nonverbal cues draws our attention to a particular part of a verbal message. Check out how the whole video actually describe the verbal message “human touch” effectively..