Assume instead of the military-equipment issue, thomas's religion required that he take a break at noon every day to take illegal drugs. the drugs are considered "schedule 1" drugs, meaning the government has evaluated them and determined that the drugs have no medicinal value but have a high risk of addiction or serve as "gateway" drugs, leading users to even more serious drugs. the state relies on studies linking drug use to criminal activity and violence.

Recall that in one condition of the experiment conducted by stasser and titus (1985) about student council president candidates, all group members had access to the same information, and that in another condition, members had unique information that other group members didn't know. in the second (unshared information) condition, the group made a worse decision than in the first (shared information) condition. this occurred because groups seldom can agree on who is most expert. focus discussion on the information that all members know. often ignore dissenting opinions. avoid differences of opinion, given conformity pressures.