Re: Group Think

ElzCralley_at_aol.com
Sun, 7 Feb 1999 12:01:19 EST

The groupthink model was proposed about 25 years ago by psychologist Irving
Janis. He retrospectively analyzed a collection of poor policy decisions
(such as Bay of Pigs, Nixon's Watergate etc...) to look for common threads and
other possible reasons why groups would make poor decisions. Thus, he
outlined the model of groupthink.

According to Janis, groupthink stems from high group cohesion, structural
faults (such as directive leadership), and a provocative situational context
(such as external threats). These factors then lead to an overestimation of
the group, closed-mindedness, and pressures toward uniformity, ultimately
leading to defective decision making. Groups that have fallen prey to
groupthink may not consider all their available options, may not consider the
risks of their preferred option, and may only "selectively" process the
available information (meaning they may ignore or downplay information that
does not support their views).

In his book, he also proposed several ways to reduce the possibility of
groupthink (such as appointing a devil's advocate, establish norms that doubts
should be expressed, etc.).

Despite the intuitive appeal of this model, however, it has received only
limited empirical support over the years and is considered to be rather
controversial.

In any case, here is the reference for the book:

Janis, I. L. (1982). Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions
and fiascoes (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

In addition, the following are references for more recent journal articles
that address his model. All are from top notch journals in psychology and
should be available at a university library. However, if you can't get your
hands on them, let me know and I'll make copies to send off to you. Good
luck!

Beth

ElzCralley_at_aol.com

Journal Articles:

Kameda, T. & Sugimori, S. (1993). Psychological entrapment in group decision
making: An assigned decision rule and a groupthink phenomenon. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 282-292.

Aldag, R. J., & Fuller, S. R. (1993). Beyond fiasco: A reappraisal of the
groupthink phenomenon and a new model of group decision processes.
Psychological Bulletin, 113, 533-552.

Mullen, B., Anthony, T., Salas, E., & Driscoll, J. E. (1994). Group
cohesiveness and quality of decision making: An integration of tests of the
Groupthink hypothesis. Small Group Research, 25, 189-204.

Tetlock, P. E., Peterson, R. S., McGuire, C., Chang, S., & Feld, P. (1992).
Assessing political group dynamics: A test of the groupthink model. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 403-425.