Avoiding Groupthink - Teen Edition
As a 10th grader, I was socially awkward. I was a year younger and less developed than everyone else. And I was also what many of my fellow Ohioans called a “tall drink of water” who had no “meat on my bones”. Midwesterners do love their colloquialisms.
Way back then, I had irrationally convinced myself that making the basketball team would solve all my problems and end the constant feeling of being an outcast. I devoted every day after school to shooting hundreds of shots alone by myself in my driveway - usually until it was time for dinner.
When I finally made the cut and joined the JV team, I thought I was home free. However, within the first weeks of practice, my teammates quickly branded me with the nickname “Head.” It didn’t help that my mom penny pinched around me getting haircuts as often as I should have - but that’s another story.
That hurt.
How Groupthink Starts As a Teen
After enduring that ridicule, the next week of school had the inner circle suddenly opening up and allowing me in.. I was invited to a party. I got to sit by the “cool kids” on the bus rides to the next couple games. The relief was immediate. But in my world, belonging always seemed to charge an entry fee.
Within 48 hours, I paid mine. For whatever reason, my Spanish teacher was late showing up for class and our entire group was left unattended for 10 minutes before she arrived. As happens, trouble ensued. I stood by, joining in the cruel laughter, as my new teammates repeatedly dumped a frequent target’s backpack into the trash can. Each time tossing back in again as he desperately scrambled to pull it out.
The catch was that this kid was someone I secretly considered a friend. “Secretly” because, in my head, to be friends with him in public at school would have been a social death sentence. He lived a couple blocks down from my grandparents house, where I spent most weekends. Outside of school, I hung out with him pretty regularly.
Two days later, I rode my bike over to that kid's house. We sat side by side on his couch, controllers in hand playing Zelda (which I would never admit to my new “friends”), while I acted like nothing had happened earlier during Spanish class. All the while, I was quietly choking down my own shame around my role in laughing along and encouraging the mockery of him.
There are very real consequences of not doing anything.
Regret Caused by Groupthink
Since then, the regret of laughing along at my friend has always stuck with me. While that might seem like a sad ending to a sad story, it truly was more of a beginning for me. Fuel that has passionately driven me toward my career in supporting and advocating for young people - teacher, counselor, and current therapist-in-training here at The Mind Spot.
Watching the challenges teens have in navigating the exact same social pressure today makes me shudder. If someone tosses a backpack into a trash can now, it’s filmed, captioned, uploaded to a private Discord or group chat, and turned into a meme before third period even starts. The cruelty isn’t always just local; it gets fed back through those algorithmic feeds that reward “pile-on”.
And the silent bystander who wants to text an apology later might stop himself. Because of course a screenshot of that private text can leak in seconds, instantly turning them into the next target. And who wants to be in the crosshairs of the mob?
Reminder: The nervous system doesn't care whether the arena is a high school bleacher, an iPhone screen, or a Silicon Valley boardroom. Our brains have evolved to treat dissent like physical exile.
A Young Adult Groupthink Example
Which brings me to Tyler Shultz.
At just 22 years old, Tyler was an entry-level lab technician at Theranos. His grandfather wasn’t just anyone. He was George Shultz, a former U.S. Secretary of State and a cornerstone member of the Theranos board. Tyler walked into an empire valued at nine billion dollars(!), surrounded by decorated generals, statesmen, and billionaires all nodding excitedly in unison at Elizabeth Holmes’ “revolutionary” blood-testing machines.
Except the machines didn't work. The data was falsified.
When Tyler raised concerns, the machinery of groupthink didn’t just disagree; it deployed textbook “mindguarding”. His own grandfather told him not to rock the boat, that Elizabeth was a genius, and that he was throwing away his future. Private investigators began tailing him. High-powered corporate lawyers literally ambushed him in his grandfather’s living room. His parents eventually spent around $400,000 in legal defense costs just to keep him out of prison.
Biologically, Tyler’s alarm bells were screaming the exact same thing my brain screamed in tenth grade in a small-town public high school in 1997. And the exact same thing a kid feels in 2026 when a group chat turns ugly: Shut up, blend in, nod along, or you will be CAST OUT.
Yet amazingly, Tyler held his ground. He didn't do it by throwing a dramatic temper tantrum or playing the “edgy dude” purely for attention. He stayed anchored to reality and found a thought partner from another siloed co-worker from a different department.
His partner was Erika Cheung, a fellow entry-level lab technician who also questioned the fraudulent technology and ultimately helped report the company to health regulators. Over quiet lunches, they compared notes and asked the single question that dismantles groupthink: "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Breaking the Groupthink Silence
Dangerous conformity drops by nearly eighty percent the second one person breaks the silence.
Whether you are 16 sweating over an unhinged group chat, 22 staring at fraudulent lab results, or 42 sitting in a tense staff meeting, the mechanics never change. The crowd will always demand your silence as the price of admission. But you don't have to take on the whole room by yourself. You just need to hit the pause button, find one person to sanity-check the room with, and remember that while being cast out of the herd is temporary, living with your own cowardice is permanent.
Whether on high-stakes corporate stages or in the quiet hallways of a small-town school, the underlying emotional dynamics remain striking in their similarity.
Ultimately, groupthink is not merely a modern adolescent phenomenon; as I mentioned earlier, it is a deeply wired evolutionary reaction. Our brains are literally built to prioritize belonging and fear exile. But when the instinct to "go along to get along" overrides moral clarity, it stops being a survival mechanism and can become very dangerous.
It is a conformity that shapes not only teenage group chats and high school bleachers, but boardrooms, political institutions, and society at large. Breaking the cycle starts with recognizing that the pressure to stay silent is universal…
…and so is the power of a single voice to disrupt it.
How The Mind Spot Can Help
Do you struggle with social pressures in a group setting? Make an appointment with Brian Castle or one of our counselors today.Meet OurCounselors
References
Asch, S. E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193(5), 31–35.
Carreyrou, J. (2018). Bad blood: Secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup. Alfred A. Knopf.
Carreyrou, J. (2016, November 18). Theranos whistleblower submitted complaint to regulators. The Wall Street Journal.
Recommended Reading
Grant, A. (2021). Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know. Crown.
Lieberman, M. (2013). Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. Crown.
McRaney, D. (2011). You Are Not So Smart. Gotham Books.
Reeves, R. V. (2022). Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. Brookings Institution Press.