CONCEPT
The Assumption of Alignment
The self-reinforcing belief that one is alone in one's ethical concern — the mechanism by which pluralistic ignorance converts widely shared private doubt into visibly unanimous organizational consensus.
The assumption of alignment is Gentile's name for the pluralistic-ignorance mechanism that produces false consensus in organizations. Each individual privately holds reservations about a course of action. Each assumes her reservations are idiosyncratic — that the visible consensus in the room reflects genuine agreement rather than performed conformity. Because each assumes she is alone, each remains silent. Because each remains silent, each individual's assumption of isolation is confirmed. The silence that results is not the silence of agreement. It is the aggregate effect of many individuals, each privately troubled, each believing she alone is troubled, each interpreting others' silence as evidence of her own isolation. The assumption is particularly virulent in the technology industry, where a dominant culture of enthusiasm for disruption codes ambivalence as failure to understand the future.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The assumption's structure is well-established in social psychology. Pluralistic ignorance has been documented in domains ranging from bystander behavior in emergencies to student attitudes toward