PhronesisWe formalize compulsive opinion-polling (COP) as a wrong attractor W_COP within the displacement framework. The healthy ground state S_0 is calibrated self-reliant judgment: the capacity to form, trust, and act on one's own assessments; to consult others selectively when their expertise or perspective is genuinely informative; and to integrate external input without requiring it as a precondition for decision.
W_COP is organized around the consensus-as-correctness belief — that agreement among multiple others constitutes validation more reliable than one's own judgment — which, as a governing principle replacing rather than informing self-assessment, produces systematic dysfunction. Three sustaining mechanisms maintain the displacement: (1) self-judgment-distrust, in which one's own assessments are experienced as insufficient or unreliable by default, making external polling necessary before action; (2) distributed-accountability, in which consulting many people symbolically spreads responsibility for outcomes, reducing the decider's felt accountability; and (3) consensus-as-correctness, in which interpersonal agreement is experienced as epistemically superior to private judgment regardless of the relative quality of the underlying reasoning.
The Consensus Paradox is stated and proved: the more opinions sought before a decision, the more conflicting information is generated, making the decision harder rather than easier; polling intended to clarify produces confusion, and the consensus sought cannot be found because genuine opinions vary. Nine formal propositions (P1–P9) characterize the attractor geometry, developmental roots, and return dynamics.
Return paths include judgment-logging, opinion-count limits, distinguishing advice from permission, and self-validation practice.