{"id":4877,"date":"2014-04-28T08:32:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/?p=4877"},"modified":"2014-04-28T08:32:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T15:32:26","slug":"groupthink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2014\/04\/groupthink\/","title":{"rendered":"Groupthink"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Groupthink<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of \u201cmental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment\u201d (p. 9). \u00a0Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups.\u00a0 A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Janis, Irving L.\u00a0 (1972).\u00a0 Victims of Groupthink.<\/em>\u00a0 New York: Houghton Mifflin.
\nJanis, Irving L.\u00a0 (1982).\u00a0 Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes.<\/em>\u00a0 <\/strong>Second Edition.\u00a0 New York: Houghton Mifflin.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of Groupthink<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Janis has documented eight symptoms of groupthink:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Illusion of invulnerability \u2013Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.<\/li>\n
  2. Collective rationalization \u2013 Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.<\/li>\n
  3. Belief in inherent morality \u2013 Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.<\/li>\n
  4. Stereotyped views of out-groups \u2013 Negative views of \u201cenemy\u201d make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.<\/li>\n
  5. Direct pressure on dissenters \u2013 Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group\u2019s views.<\/li>\n
  6. Self-censorship \u2013 Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.<\/li>\n
  7. Illusion of unanimity \u2013 The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.<\/li>\n
  8. Self-appointed \u2018mindguards\u2019 \u2013 Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group\u2019s cohesiveness, view, and\/or decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When the above symptoms exist in a group that is trying to make a decision, there is a reasonable chance that groupthink will happen, although it is not necessarily so.\u00a0 Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision.\u00a0 When pressures for unanimity seem overwhelming, members are less motivated to realistically appraise the alternative courses of action available to them.\u00a0 These group pressures lead to carelessness and irrational thinking since groups experiencing groupthink fail to consider all alternatives and seek to maintain unanimity.\u00a0 Decisions shaped by groupthink have low probability of achieving successful outcomes.<\/p>\n

    Remedies for Groupthink<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Decision experts have determined that groupthink may be prevented by adopting some of the following measures:<\/p>\n

    a) The leader should assign the role of critical evaluator to each member
    \nb) The leader should avoid stating preferences and expectations at the outset
    \nc) Each member of the group should routinely discuss the groups’ deliberations with a trusted associate and report back to the group on the associate’s reactions
    \nd) One or more experts should be invited to each meeting on a staggered basis.\u00a0 The outside experts should be encouraged to challenge views of the members.
    \ne) At least one articulate and knowledgeable member should be given the role of devil’s advocate (to question assumptions and plans)
    \nf) The leader should make sure that a sizeable block of time is set aside to survey warning signals from rivals; leader and group construct alternative scenarios of rivals’ intentions.<\/p>\n

    Source<\/strong>: http:\/\/www.psysr.org\/about\/pubs_resources\/groupthink%20overview.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What is Groupthink? Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of \u201cmental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment\u201d (p. 9). \u00a0Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups.\u00a0 A group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4877"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4881,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877\/revisions\/4881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}