Kurt Vonnegut coined the term granfalloons to define proud and meaningless associations of human beings. Researchers have uncovered two basic psychological processes, one cognitive and one motivational, to explain the power of granfalloons. "First, the knowledge that 'I am in this group' is used to divide up and make sense of the world, much in the same way that words and labels can be used to pre-persuade. Differences between groups are exaggerated. whereas similarities among members of the granfalloon are emphasized in the secure knowledge that 'this is what our group does.'" writes sociologist Anthony Pratkanis. "is it any wonder that advertisers pay dearly to link their products with winners, such as Michael Jordan for sneakers or Cindy Crawford for makeup, and to create merchandise-selling granfalloons based on labels, movies such as Star Wars or Pokemon."
Researcher Herbert Hyman finds that 'people tend to acquire information mostly about things that they find of interest and tend to avoid information that does not agree with their beliefs. Should someone find that they have been unavoidably exposed to disagreeable information, a common response is to distort and reinterpret that information, thus ignoring its implications for updating beliefs and attitudes.' In other words, once one becomes a member of a granfalloon, the more likely he is to uncritically accept that granfalloon's dogma, while dismissing arguments that might compromise it.
"Research also shows that many Americans agree that the evening news is biased; they disagree, however, as to the nature of this bias," Pratkis writes. "Those who view the evening news as biased are evenly split, claiming that it is too liberal or too conservative, too Republican or too Democratic, too supportive of the status quo or too change-oriented. The point is that the bias of a communication is often in the eye of the beholder. "
