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Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe one process
by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform
his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. This
results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees on an action which each member might normally consider to be
unwise.
Janis' original definition of the term was "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a
cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative
courses of action." The word groupthink itself is intentionally reminiscent of George Orwell's coinages (such as doublethink
and duckspeak) from the fictional language Newspeak, which he portrayed in his ideological novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Groupthink tends to occur on committees and in large organizations, and has
been cited as a contributing factor in the Vietnam War, Bay of Pigs Invasion, both the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster and the
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and
the bankruptcy of Enron.
Signs of groupthink include:
- Examining few alternatives
- Not seeking expert or outside opinions
- Being highly selective in gathering information (See confirmation
bias and selection bias)
- An illusion of invulnerability
- Strong belief in group's inherent morality
- Rationalizing poor decisions (See cognitive dissonance)
- Pressure to conform within group; members
withold criticisms
- Pressure to protect group from negative views or information
- Overt external or internal pressure to come to a decision
- Individual group members look to each other to confirm theories
One mechanism which management consultants recommend to avoid groupthink is to place responsibility and authority for a
decision in the hands of a single person who can turn to others for advice. Others advise that a pre-selected individual take the
role of disagreeing with any suggestion presented, thereby making other individuals more likely to present their own ideas and
point out flaws in others' — and reducing the stigma associated with being the first to take negative stances (see Devil's advocate). Finally, anonymous feedback via
suggestion box or online chat has been found to be a useful remedy for groupthink — negative or
dissenting views of proposals can be raised with no individual being seen to do so. Thus the social capital of the group is preserved, as every member has plausible deniability that they raised a dissenting point.
An alternative to groupthink is a formal consensus
decision-making process, which works best in a group whose aims are cooperative rather than competitive, where trust is able
to build up, and where participants are willing to learn and apply facilitation skills.
External resources
- Janis, Irving. Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1972. ISBN
0395140447
See also
External links
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