Everyone loves consensus. We assume that if agreement is unanimous, we must be doing something right. Unfortunately, that’s not always true.

Picture this: It’s a scorching hot afternoon in Texas. Luckily, you’ve got a shady porch, a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade and a very effective fan. You’re enjoying passing the afternoon playing dominoes with your family when suddenly, out-of-the-blue, your father-in-law comes up with a terrible idea: why not drive to Abilene for dinner, more than 50 miles away?

Why not? Here’s why not, you think. The car doesn’t have air conditioning. It will be a cramped, sweltering and miserable road trip, hours in each direction. Before you can say anything, your wife says the trip sounds fun. Your mother-in-law says the same. You hate to be disagreeable, so you say the only thing you think is allowed: Sounds great. 

The trip is just as bad as you imagined, and, adding insult to injury, your meal is bad, too. After all that, you have to pile back into the car and make the reverse journey home. 

At long last, you get back to the porch and the fan. Everyone is silent for a long time. Lying through your teeth, you say to the group, “Well, that was fun!” 

No one agrees. One by one, every family member confesses they thought it was an awful plan before leaving — but felt pressured to go by everyone else. Even your father-in-law said he’d have preferred to stay home — he was just worried everyone else was bored.

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