<P> Scholars have noted that certain environments can produce an ideal situation for these processes to take hold, giving rise to groupthink . In groupthink, individuals in a group feel inclined to minimize conflict and encourage conformity . Through an appeal to authority, a group member might present that opinion as a consensus and encourage the other group members to engage in groupthink by not disagreeing with this perceived consensus or authority . One paper about the philosophy of mathematics for example notes that, within academia, </P> <P> If...a person accepts our discipline, and goes through two or three years of graduate study in mathematics, he absorbs our way of thinking, and is no longer the critical outsider he once was...If the student is unable to absorb our way of thinking, we flunk him out, of course . If he gets through our obstacle course and then decides that our arguments are unclear or incorrect, we dismiss him as a crank, crackpot, or misfit . </P> <P> Corporate environments are similarly vulnerable to appeals to perceived authorities and experts leading to groupthink, as are governments and militaries . </P>

In the appeal to authority the person making the claims is not an expert on the topic