Why Do Brainstorming Sessions Often Result in Groupthink?

Brainstorming sessions are supposed to spark creativity, generate diverse ideas, and encourage bold thinking. Yet more often than not, they produce conformity: individuals aligning with the dominant view rather than contributing their own perspective. The pool of ideas shrinks instead of expands.

Why does this happen? The answer lies less in brainstorming technique and more in our wiring. Human instincts, shaped over thousands of years in small, tightly knit groups, clash with the demands of modern collaboration. What once ensured cohesion and survival now curtails creativity.

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Fear of Rejection

In ancestral societies, exclusion was catastrophic. To be cut off from your group meant loss of food, protection, and Belonging. As a result, the human brain evolved to prioritize acceptance. Irving Janis, who coined the term groupthink in the 1970s, highlighted this very dynamic: people suppress dissenting ideas not out of laziness, but out of fear of standing apart.

In a brainstorming session, this instinct plays out as hesitation. Even if invited to “think outside the box,” participants hesitate to voice ideas that might feel too unconventional, because their brains equate rejection with risk.

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The Pull of Hierarchy

Humans are primates, and primates are hierarchical. Robert Sapolsky’s decades of research with baboons shows how deeply status shapes behavior and stress. In ancestral groups, defying a dominant individual could be dangerous. Today, when a manager or senior leader sits in a brainstorming circle, the same wiring triggers deference. People hold back ideas rather than risk contradicting authority, even in supposedly “flat” organizations.

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Harmony Over Friction

Conflict was costly in small groups. Too much disagreement could splinter cohesion, weakening the tribe. That’s why our brains nudge us toward agreement—even when disagreement might produce better solutions. Harmony feels safe; friction feels dangerous. In brainstorming, this translates into quick consensus and premature alignment, which comforts participants but smothers creativity.

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Anchoring on the First Idea

Kahneman and Tversky documented how the anchoring bias shapes judgment: early signals skew everything that follows. Evolutionarily, this made sense—following the first alert about a predator could save your life. But in brainstorming, the first idea voiced often dominates. Others unconsciously build on it, narrowing the range of thought. What could have been divergent quickly becomes incremental.

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Group Size and Social Loafing

Anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that humans naturally thrive in groups of about 30–50, with effective collaboration happening in even smaller clusters. Beyond that, voices get lost. In brainstorming sessions with large, diverse groups, some participants go silent—what psychologists call “social loafing.” Responsibility diffuses, and only a few dominate the conversation.

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The Pressure of Speed

In ancestral environments, rapid consensus could be life-saving. If someone spotted danger, quick alignment meant survival. That instinct lingers today. In fast-paced workplaces, brainstorming sessions are often run under time pressure, with an implicit mandate to land on a solution quickly. But speed favors convergence, not exploration. The result: the first “good enough” idea wins, while better, harder ones never surface.

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Breaking the Groupthink Cycle

If our wiring pushes us toward conformity, how can brainstorming avoid collapse? The answer is not to abandon group creativity but to design for our instincts.

Anonymous idea submissions reduce social pressure. Separating idea generation from evaluation gives dissent room to breathe. Smaller breakout groups echo the dynamics of ancestral bands, where every voice mattered. Explicitly rewarding dissent signals safety, a principle Amy Edmondson has called psychological safety.

Most importantly, leaders must resist the urge to speak first. Their silence is the permission others need to take risks.

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The Bottom Line

Brainstorming fails not because people lack imagination but because human wiring prioritizes safety, harmony, and hierarchy over novelty. In environments designed for conformity, groupthink is not a bug—it is the default.

To unlock true creativity, we must acknowledge these instincts and redesign the process around them. Real innovation rarely emerges from comfortable consensus. It comes from the messy, uncomfortable friction of genuine collaboration.

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References & Further Reading

• Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
• Robert Sapolsky – Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017)

Related Neurocient Articles:
From Campfires to Conference Rooms: The Mismatch in Team-Building
When Feedback Feels Like Fight-or-Flight