The collective cognitive imperative is an internal command or obligation felt by suggestible people that often drives their joining some group.
Besides requiring the person accept the group’s belief system, it outlines culturally agreed on behavioral constraints and roles to be acted out.
Rather than an individual internally and analytically weighing the merits of believing in something or acting a certain way, this imperative requires that he or she trust an external authority accepted by the group.
The authority can be a person such as preacher, shaman, hypnotist, or celebrity, or something else such as voice from a speaker, TV image, drum, sacred book, magic charm, etc.
Depending upon the group they join, those who succumb to the collective cognitive imperative may be ridiculed by others as failing to do their own thinking, undermining their own individuality or giving up certain rights.