GROUPTHINK in Archived Chapter, 3rd ed. OF Irving Janis in Em Griffin, A First Look at Communication Theory (1st ed.) 5/27/2019

CLICKER Groupthink occurs when there is: High cohesiveness ; A shared “we feeling” of solidarity; Desire to maintain relationships within the group at all costs; D. All of the above 5/27/2019

WHAT THE THEORY IS ABOUT Janis wanted to understand how a blue-ribbon group (or any group) could make a terrible decision, such as happened in the Bay of Pigs decision during JF Kennedy’s presidency;

Bay of Pigs Invasion During President Kennedy’s presidency, a group of respected minds deliberated and decided to support a military invasion of Cuba; The invasion was a massive disaster, with all the soldiers either dead or captured;

The Decision Everything went wrong: the secret nature of the plan was revealed quickly; The air attack failed; U.S. supply ships were sunk or driven off; Our troops were bombed as soon as they hit the beach;

Errors in the Decision Kennedy’s group of advisors miscalculated the effect of the invasion on the population of Cuba, expecting uprisings; Later, the U.S. had to pay Cuba $53,000,000 to get the captured soldiers released from prison; The whole effort was a grand fiasco;

Irving Janis Janis wanted to understand how a blue-ribbon group could make such a terrible decision; Janis believed that group dynamics were responsible for the poor decision making: he called it groupthink; He suspected that other bad decisions made in the government were due to the same forces: The Challenger Launch;Pearl Harbor; invasion of North Korea;Vietnam war; Watergate coverup;

Groupthink: A Concurrence-Seeking Tendency Janis defines groupthink 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 appraise alternative courses of action.” (p. 220, Griffin, 1991)

Groupthink Occurs When cohesiveness is high; A shared “we feeling” of solidarity and desire to maintain relationships within the group at all costs; Yet, typically it has been thought that high-cohesive groups are more effective than low-cohesive groups in achieving their goals;

Cohesive Issue Janis thinks that the high-cohesiveness of a policy making group endangers independent and critical thinking; Janis’ position is that the consensus-seeking tendency of close-knit groups can cause them to make inferior decisions;

SYMPTOMS OF GROUPTHINK 1. Illusion of invulnerability: members feel that they cannot be wrong; 2. Belief in inherent morality of the group: the group never questions that it is on the side of truth, justice, and goodness; 3. Collective rationalization: Members reassure one another of certain beliefs [that are incorrect] ; 4. Out-group stereotypes: Cuban air force was seen as obsolete, the army as weak, & Castro as stupid--all wrong;

Symptoms of Groupthink 5. Self-Censorship: An individual may not want to be an isolated, dissenting voice--there is a pressure toward uniformity; 6. Illusion of Unanimity: An atmosphere of assumed consensus--silence is taken for consent;

Groupthink Symptoms 7. Direct Pressure on Dissenters: the discussion is structures so as to suppress negative reactions; the agreement to do X becomes associated with some value--e.g., manhood; 8. Self-Appointed Mindguards: “Mindguards” protect a leader from assault by troublesome ideas (e.g., “now is the time to just stand by the leader”); 1 5/27/2019

GROUPTHINK IN EVERYDAY LIFE Groupthink theory maintains that groupthink can occur in any group where members consider loyalty to the group more important than the action it decides to take; Not all cohesive groups end up succumbing to groupthink; Cohesiveness is a necessary but not sufficient condition for excessive concurrence seeking;

Antecedent Conditions of Groupthink A Cohesive Group of Decision-Makers [just discussed]; Structural Faults of the Organization; Situational Context;

Cohesive Group + Structural Faults + Situational Context = A tendency for groupthink concurrence-seeking: Overestimation of the Group: symptoms 1 & 2; Closed-mindedness: symptoms 3 & 4; Pressure toward uniformity: symptoms 5, 6, 7, & 8; (p. 224)

The 8 Symptoms of Groupthink Lead to Defective Decision-Making 1. Incomplete survey of alternatives; 2. Incomplete survey of objectives; 3. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice; 4. Failure to reappraise initially rejected alternatives; 5. Poor information search; 6. Selective bias in processing information at hand; 7. Failure to work out contingency plans; Low probability of successful Outcome

Situational Context 1. High stress from external threats with low hope of a better solution than the leader’s ; 2. Low self-esteem temporarily induced by: a. Recent failures; b. Excessive difficulties on current decision making task that lowers members’ self efficacy; c. Moral dilemmas: Apparent loss of feasible alternatives except ones that violate ethical standards;

Structural Faults of the Organization 1. Insulation of the group; 2. Lack of tradition of impartial leadership; 3. Lack of norms requiring methodical procedures; 4. Homogeneity of members’ social background and ideology; 5. Etc.

IT DOESN’T ALWAYS HAPPEN Cohesiveness is one element; When the structural faults are present, and the context facilitates not trusting in your own ability to choose, the probability of groupthink increases; 2

To Reduce the Groupthink Taking Over Changes can be made in: Insulation of the group; Impartial leadership; Procedural methods (e.g., encourage dissent);