Came across a good story recently on the blog of 2+2 poster Degen about being arrested for playing poker in Thailand. I couldn’t figure out how to link to just that post, but it’s currently the top item on his blog. Here’s a good excerpt:
“In America if you are picked up for a petty crime, they cut you a ticket and tell you when to return to court. That’s the only reference point I had, and coupled with the fact that they had what looked like about ten people working on this, it seemed more serious to me than they were making it out to be. Why would they send an undercover informant into our game and bring six officials down for several hours, then haul us all away and hold us while they investigate for several more hours…if this is a minor crime that they are going to let us walk for?
I learned about Groupthink in college and that started to flash before my eyes here. It is when a group of people all basically just nod in unison, not wanting to be the one to buck the status quo, when going down a slippery slope to a horrible decision…such as being arrested in a third world country and signing a confession they cannot read under duress. I could see this on the Amnesty International website. I began to panic.”