Groupthink: Explanation, Examples and Remedies.
Groupthink comes about when a group of people, for example in an administration, make a decision that brings about harmony and concordance without critically evaluating other alternative points of view. This brings about mental deterioration and individual creativity loss.
According to Janis Irving (1972) groupthink mostly occurs in groups that have got the same background, when decision making rules are not clear and when the group insulates itself from outside opinions.
Examples of groupthink include the Titanic disaster, Pearl of harbor issue, escalation of the Vietnam War, the Y2K scare in 1999 etc. Though it's hard to pinpoint groupthink as the main cause of all these examples, it ca be proven to be a factor. Take the Bay of Pigs invasions in 1961 where the John F Kennedy administration collectively agreed to invade Cuba despite other people having different opinions.
Also, although the titanic sank due to technical issues like the fact that the rudder was too small, it was 'collectively' agreed to carry only 1,178 lifeboats yet it had a capacity of 3,547. This could have reduced the number of people who died.
There are several ways of preventing the groupthink but to do so one needs to know and be able to recognize the symptoms. According to Irving Janis (1972) these include: loyalty pressure, where the members are under pressure to be loyal to their leader or their country or their company. Often when a member's opinion is contrary to what others think then he/she is taken to be disloyal hence the need of all members being concurrent to the decision made.
Second is the complacency, where the members tend to overlook the negatives just because they made several correct decision makings. Here, they always have the assumption that every decision made is always right.
Rationalization of warnings is another antecedent factor that brings about groupthink. The group members discount warnings evidently proving the contrary and do not reconsider their assumptions. This may be caused mainly because of the homogeneity of the members' background and ideology.
Stereotyping as a fourth symptom is where the members pigeonhole those having opposing opinions as enemies, uncooperative or just stupid. This makes such members to refrain themselves from raising private concerns for fear of being ridiculed by others thus Self-censorship.
There is also the situation where the members experience the Illusion of unanimity. Here, the majority view is considered as unanimous and the silence that follows indicates agreement and compliance within the group. This is caused mainly because of the desire to bring about harmony and concurrence.
All of the mentioned symptoms can be prevented or avoided by adopting some measures such as the following:
o Choosing of members with different social and ideological background to avoid homogeneity. This will allow members to have different opinions on several issues.
o A leader should frequently allow outside members to give their opinions so as to discourage insulation.
o A member or two should be given the mandate of acting as the devil's advocate in the group to question opinions raised.