Social Dissociation

I think it is useful to be able to socially dissociate oneself. That is, to induce upon oneself the mental attitude that one is not quite like the others in the group. If there's one thing I learned about group think, it's that the most powerful weapon against it just so happens to be to not feel socially integrated with that particular group.

When one regards oneself as separate, it becomes a lot easier to think outside the box that the well integrated build around themselves. This allows the sort of lateral thinking that can solve problems in ways that everyone in the focus group seem to become unable to.

I am no expert in the subject, but I guess this may be one of the reasons that artistic folk are viewed as "smarter" in some way when they seem to be able to think up stuff that nobody else would readily imagine. Perhaps they are, but perhaps they are also less of a part of the hive to the extent that they are capable of thinking for themselves for a change.