Granfalloon

A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel "Cat's Cradle"), is defined as a "false karass" (imagined community). That is, it is a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless. The most common granfalloons are associations and societies based on a shared but ultimately fabricated premise. As examples, Vonnegut cites: "the Communist Party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows—and any nation, anytime, anywhere." A more general and oft-cited quote defines a granfalloon as "a proud and meaningless association of human beings." Another "granfalloon" example illustrated in the book was Hoosiers, of which the narrator (and Vonnegut himself) was a member.

: "If you wish to study a granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon."—Bokonon

"My God," she said, "are you a hoosier?"
"I admitted I was."
"I'm a Hoosier, too," she crowed. "Nobody has to be ashamed of being a Hoosier."
"I'm not," I said. "I never knew anybody who was." – Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"

Granfalloon in social networking sites

In a March 2007 Slate article, Emily Yoffe used the word in reference to having too many Facebook friends and Facebook groups. [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2161920/pagenum/all/#page_start Last week I had zero friends on Facebook. Now I have 775. - By Emily Yoffe - Slate Magazine ] ] Other writers have also used the word to describe the sometimes-superfluous networks formed by users on social networking sites like MySpace, LinkedIn and Jed.com.

Granfalloon Technique

The granfalloon technique is a method of persuasion in which individuals are encouraged to identify with a particular granfalloon or social group. The pressure to identify with a group is meant as a method of securing the individual's loyalty and commitment through adoption of the groups symbols, rituals, and beliefs. In social psychology the concept stems from research by the British social psychologist Henri Tajfel's. Tajfel's findings have come to be known as the minimum group paradigm. In his research Tajfel found that strangers would form groups on the basis of completely inconsequential criteria. In one study Tajfel subjects were asked to watch a coin toss. They were then designated to a particular group based on whether the coin landed on heads or tails. The subjects placed in groups based on such meaningless associations between them have consistently been found to "act as if those sharing the meaningless labels were kin or close friends."

Researchers since Tajfel have made strides into unraveling the mystery behind this phenomenon. Today it is broken down into two basic psychological processes, one cognitive and one motivational. First, knowing that one is a part of this group is used to make sense of the world. When one associates with a particular group, those in the group focus on the similarities between the members. This is different from people not in the group. For "outsiders" differences are focused upon and often exaggerated. A problem with the granfalloon is that it often leads to in-group, out-group bias." Second, social groups provide a source of self-esteem and pride, a form of reverse Groucho Marxism as in his famous remark "I don't care to belong to any club that would have me as a member. [Pratkanis, Anthony R., and Elliot Aronson. Age of Propaganda. Rev. ed. New York: Owl Book, 1992. 214-223.] "

The imagined communities of Benedict Anderson form a similar concept. Devilly considers that granfalloons are one explanation for how pseudo-scientific topics are promoted [Devilly, Grant J. (2005) "Power Therapies and possible threats to the science of psychology and psychiatry", Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 39, No. 6, June 2005, pp. 437-445(9)] .

Granfalloon in popular culture

*The band Granfaloon Bus released eight full-length albums, as well as several singles and compilations, between 1990 and 2003.
*In the 1997 video game "", a boss was named after the term Granfalloon. It took the form of a huge ball of naked, human corpses held together from within by a monstrous parasite. The monster's original Japanese name was Legion, as it is now called in the later releases.
*On the Carole King album "Tapestry", James Taylor is credited with playing the Acoustic Guitar and the Granfalloon

References and footnotes