The Perils Of Groupthink

The Perils of Groupthink

and How to Avoid It.

Groupthink is defined as 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 alternative courses of action" (Janis 9). The Bay of Pigs invasion, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger have all been attributed to groupthink. Unfortunately, groupthink is usually attributed to government debacles even though the production of New Coke® and the Ford Edsel are considered to be the fruits of corporate groupthink. Luckily, groupthink is easily avoided if preventative measures are taken and group members constantly check for it.

. The Bay of Pigs incident is widely considered to be the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the United States. The leaders of the operation were qualified and extremely capable of carrying out this type of operation. However, it was so poorly planned and implemented that it had absolutely no chance of success. The plan was based almost entirely on bad intelligence and false assumptions. Among the deluded assumptions were that the Cuban people would welcome the invasion, Cuba's military was not capable of handling the invasion attempt, and that the United States could deny any involvement. So, why did a group of individuals who should have known that the plan had no chance of succeeding proceed to carry it out? The group planning the operation was a victim of groupthink. Groupthink is the breakdown of group communication that leads to a lack of creativity and poor decision making. The group members failed to properly appraise the situation despite information being available that ran contrary to the assumptions being made. The planners of the Bay of Pigs fell victim to the pressures of uniformity and saw themselves as invulnerable to possible fallout from the situation.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way for outside observers to readily identify the symptoms of groupthink. "... Most groupthink symptoms represent private feelings or beliefs held by group members or behaviors held in private" (Thompson, Aranda, and Robbins 168). An overwhelming pressure of reaching a unanimous decision often moves groups into the groupthink mentality. The symptoms of groupthink are easily identifiable. There is a feeling of "invulnerability" and "moral correctness" which leads decision makers to think that nothing can go wrong that they are doing the right thing in all circumstances. The group engages in "collective rationalization" which leads them to disregard out-group opinions and stifles creativity. "Self-censorship" starts to take place. Group members will not share any opinions to the contrary for fear of being rejected. Once self-censorship starts to take place there is an illusion of unanimity because individuals are uncomfortable voicing a differing opinion or believe that they are the only one who is thinking that way so they do not say anything to upset the illusion.

Fortunately, there are some simple things that any group can implement in order to prevent groupthink from effecting the groups' decisions. First, is to make each member of the group into a critical evaluator. As long as the group leader is willing to take criticism and allows members to find problems with