herd mentality

American

[hurd-men-tal-i-tee] / ˈhɜrd mɛnˌtæl ɪ ti /

noun

plural

herd mentalities

the inclination among members of a group to follow what they perceive to be the prevailing attitudes and behavior of the group instead of making their own decisions and assertions.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For some people, control means retaining a sense of normalcy, especially when panic buying is escalating all around them — partly due to what psychologists refer to as a “herd mentality.”

From MarketWatch

She says it was fuelled by a "herd mentality".

From BBC

Many times, groupthink and herd mentality can prevent bad ideas from being spotted and canceled before they become larger failures.

From The Wall Street Journal

“The problem isn’t the font, it’s the herd mentality,” said Fons Mans, founder of the Dutch design studio Offgrid.

From The Wall Street Journal

These hacker communities have a "herd mentality", he says: "People don't care about the medical side of things - all they see is 20 millions being paid."

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023