Social thinking and social influence Conformity, social facilitation, social loafing, deindividuation, group polarization, and groupthink

Lesson Outcomes Define and provide examples of groupthink Describe situations when groupthink occurs Describe characteristics of groups that are prone to groupthink Look at suggestions for reducing groupthink

Groupthink The tendency of members of a group to think alike because of the desire to maintain harmony within the group, the existence of peer pressure and insulation from external opinions Image 1

Example of Groupthink May have contributed to the explosion of the US space shuttle Challenger This was one of the biggest space disasters that has ever occurred. The managers, who agreed to overlook the engineers’ weather-related concerns, had given in to the lure of groupthink. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYX35Z_L-dw http://www.crmlearning.com/groupthink-2nd-edition?gclid=CIiEqt-K35kCFQw9GgodVFiLVw Image 2

Characteristics of groups that are prone to groupthink Image 3

1996 Everest Disaster Activity # 1 Identify the characteristics of the Everest team that made this group prone to groupthink Image 4

Answers Highly cohesive group The members of the expedition were keen on getting to the summit because of the time and money they had individually invested in it. This shared goal lead to a fair degree of unity within the group, and possibly caused warnings signs to be ignored and assumptions rationalized.

Insulation from external input The climbing teams were not in contact with each other. As a result there was little communication between them. This was exacerbated by the fact that only team leaders were equipped with communication devices. Promotional leadership Group leaders on the expedition had a commercial interest in getting as many clients as possible to the summit. This may have caused them to downplay risks and push clients harder than they should have.

Lack of clear decision-making process All decisions on the expedition were made by group leaders. Although this may have been necessary because group members lacked mountaineering expertise, decisions were not communicated in a timely manner (this is related to the point about insulation of groups) and there was no clear advice to groups about when they should turn back.

Homogeneous composition of group Expedition members came from similar backgrounds – all had the money to pay for the opportunity to get to the summit. Consequently, they were all highly motivated to succeed. External threat The expedition was one of many commercial expeditions on the mountain at that time. This caused an “us versus them” mentality, which lead to risky decisions being made.

Low self esteem Expedition leaders were keen to prove themselves because of previous failures in getting clients to the summit. This may have lead to a single-minded pursuit of succeeding this time.

Resisting Groupthink Assign people to identify problems Be open to, and welcome various opinions Invite experts to critique plans in various stages of development Image 5

Lost on the Moon Activity # 2 Image 6

Review Activity # 3 Label the given definitions and examples with their corresponding concepts Practice for quiz tomorrow

Lesson Outcomes Defined and provided examples of groupthink Described situations when groupthink occurs Described characteristics of groups that are prone to groupthink Looked at suggestions for reducing groupthink

References Image 1 http://www.angelfire.com/hi4/loveandpeace/groupthink.gif Image 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_(04-04-1983).JPEG Image 3 http://topstepconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/group-think-3.jpg Image 4 http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LG5wULbDumE/TAfkYui-AnI/AAAAAAAAARc/hm7wIDfHqec/s320/into+thin+air.jpg Image 5http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-he9NoZtisLE/UUgcrTT2_OI/AAAAAAAABBs/AQFF-wJBR3c/s1600/03+group-think+escapee.jpg Image 6: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--DV5GK5Zv--/17mu3b5db7o2xjpg.jpg