Here’s a collection of some social psychology concepts I find interesting. I’ll let these clinical definitions speak for me.

A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics. For example, women, men, the elderly, and high school students all constitute social categories. A social category can become a social group when the members in the category interact with each other and identify themselves as members of the group. In contrast, a social aggregate is a collection of people who are in the same place, but who do not interact or share characteristics. from here

Groupthink in action: video

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process.

The primary socially negative cost of groupthink is the loss of individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking. from wiki

If you are interested in more, I think social psychology is the field that digs into this kind of thought. Social Psychology wiki

I haven’t found the term for the concept I’ve noticed. Maybe you can help: Having a label or term applied to a new phenomenon or unusual something, legitimizes its acceptability. For example, “What’s that slop you are eating?” someone says after looking at a medley of vegetables, cheese and grains. You respond, “Quiche.” The amend, “Looks tasty!”

This applies to new inventions, foods, clothing, whatever. If you do it on your own, you’re eccentric. If someone markets the idea puts a few bucks in an ad campaign, gets it sold in stores, then all of a sudden another social phenomenon occurs like ostracization for not knowing about the name for this same thing.

Example: blended up fruit before jamba juice existed, I yes I’ll get personal now, I was ridiculed or poked fun at for drinking such funky looking barf, then a few years later all those same douchebags are spending $5+ a pop for store-made smoothies.

Back to the first paragraph, I like having a distinction between of social group vs social category. now to let my computer read me the entire social psychology article while I doze off to sleep.

In conclusion, who cares.

Thanks for listening.