Doris Lessing’s essay titled “Group Minds” discusses how we, as humans, tend to fall victim to pressures of behaving similarly in groups, rather than having an individual identity. “Sweet Rolls at Borealis” by Jeffrey Ihlenfeldt hints at a similar theme, where there are examples of this “curse” of following the crowd instead of making your own decisions.
It is in our human nature that we instinctively follow the majority opinion, rather than forming our own ideas and beliefs. In an experiment featured in “Group Minds”, it is said that, “there are indeed glorious individualists who stubbornly insist on telling the truth as they see it, but most give in to the majority opinion, obey the atmosphere” (1). Lessing’s point here is that most people claim to be an individual who is independent and can make their own choices, however, they are found to be hypocritical when they eventually give in to the majority, or group, opinion.…show more content… In the following passage, Ihlenfeldt is explaining what happened after Charlotte found Jacob taking an unusually long amount of time picking out donuts. Jeffrey Ihlenfeldt’s essay says, “having told the other associates of the bizarre occurrence, it seemed reasonable that they would not take one either” (12). This correlates to Lessing’s essay because it shows how humans to tend to act in groups, rather than as individuals. After Charlotte told the co-workers of the occurrence, everyone else decided it was extremely odd and chose not to take a donut