-
report about group thinking
Introduction
From
ancient
times
to
the
present,
human
beings
are
social
animals.
People
living
together to form a mutually dependent
state, and ultimately the formation of society. In
a
society, there are many different
relationships between individuals, and people live
in it will
influence
each
other,
especially
their
way
of
thinking.
Groupthink
is
a
new
hypothesis
about
making
group
decisions
proposed
by
Janis
in
1972.
It
can
be
explained
as
The
thinking
mode
of
the
tendency
of
group
decision
making,
this
is
a
concept
of
social
psychology.
Janis(1972)
insisted
that
groupthink
have
a
big
impact
on
many
different
kinds
of
decisions,
not
only
the
company's
decision-making,
but
also
the
government
decision-making.
He
also
gave
some
examples
to
support
his
theory,
such
as
the
Watergate
scandal,
the
accident
of
space
shuttle
Challenger,
Bay
of
pigs,
even
the
assassination of President Kennedy. His
significant idea is to prevent the appearance of
groupthink, this is also
occur in
some popular
management textbooks and publications
about
decision
making.
But
Unfortunately,
this
theory
has
not
been
well
valued
by
the
decision
makers.
To
a
certain
extent,
if
the
decision
makers
have
been
ignoring
the
existence of the problem, it may cause
serious consequences (Moorhead. G
et
al
., 1991).
So,
people
pay
more
attention
to
groupthink,
especially
for
management
in
a
team.
Managers
should have a good analysis of groupthink, In this
article, I will introduce the
definition of groupthink, and then, I
will talk about groupthink symptoms, explain why
it is a
problem, and do some discussion
about groupthink.
Defining
Groupthink
Groupthink always happens in
a group of people, it is a social psychology
phenomenon. It
is a kind of informal
specification that intended to keep a friendly
relationship within the
group and lead
to a tendency of similar ideas. According to
Janis(1982), because of the
desire for
harmony and conformity, the member of a high
cohesion group insist that there
must
be no mistakes in their decision
.
And in order to maintain the
consistency of groups
on the surface,
All members are firmly in support of the group's
decision, And choose to
ignore
the
information
that
is
inconsistent
with
the
group
idea.
In
another
word,
Group
members reduce
conflict as far as possible, they continue to
change their ideas in order to
get a
consistent action plan. And regardless of whether
this idea or plan is correct, the
group
members
have
no
criticism
of
this.
At
the
same
time,
even
if
there
is
a
critical
opinion of the internal,
they will actively suppress, also, they
refused to accept the views
of the
outside world. Groupthink have a wide range of
influence in different areas, such as
the
field
of
political
science,
management,
literature
communication
studies
and
organizational
theory(Turner,
M.
E.;
Pratkanis,
A.
R.
1998).
Generally
speaking,
groupthink is a kind of disease that
hurts a lot of groups, it will make observation
thinking
ability and moral judgment of
Individuals in a group fall. And also, it will
seriously damage
the group performance.
Italy philosopher Antonio
Gramsci first put forward the concept of
groupthink. After that,
William White
mentioned the word groupthink in Fortune magazine
in 1952. However, in
general, most of
the research on groupthink was conducted by
psychologist Owen Janis
of
the
Yale
University,
who
published
an
influential
book
in
1972,
and
given
a
revised
version in 1982. His subsequent
research has been constantly evaluated and
optimized
for his group thinking model.
Janis mainly used the bay of pigs and the Japanese
attack
on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as his
two cases to study. After that, a lot of scholars
have done
related
research
about
groupthink.
For
example,
Flowers(1977),
Courtrught(1978)
and
Leana(1985).
Here
are
some
preconditions
provided
by
Moorhead.
G
et
al
.(1991).
Cohesive
group,
leader preference and Insulation from
experts. First, the group must be a highly
cohesive
group, which means group
members are familiar with each other, there is a
high degree of
team spirit between
members, they may work together for many years.
Second, Leader
preference means
group leaders tend
to
choose
a
particular decision. Third,
Insulation
from
experts means
this group
is isolated from
the
outside
world
and
unable
to
obtain
external opinions. Moorhead and his
Colleague also use the U.S. Challenger incident as
an
example
to
prove
the
rationality
of
these
three
preconditions.
Actually,
Janis(1982)
pointed out that in addition to these
three, there are five preconditions: Lack of
structured
decision
making
procedures,
the
background
and
values
of
the
group
members
are
similar,
the
existence
of
external
pressure
and
time
pressure,
the
existing
scheme
is
accepted
by
influential
leaders
lead
to
this
group
have
no
confidence
to
find
a
better
solutions
and
low
self-esteem.
The
variables in
these
conditions
also
make
groupthink
becomes a problem, I will talk about it
later.
Symptoms of
Groupthink
Illusion
of
invulnerability.
When
groupthink
happens,
most
or
all
of
the
crew
of
the
decision-
making
group
is
invulnerable
illusion,
this
illusion
let
the
members
completely
oblivious
to
the
obvious
mistakes.
Also,
it
leads
to
the
group
over
confident
and
blind
optimism,
ignoring
the
potential
danger
and
warning,
unaware
of
the
dangers
of
the
decision they made. Finally, it cause
the whole group to take on a huge risk(Moorhead.
G
et al
.,
1991).
collective rationalization of group's
decisions.
When groupthink occurs, the
group will try
to
rationalize
the
decision
had
been
made,
also,
they
will
choose
to
ignore
external
challenges,
opposing
views
and
new
ideas.
That
is
to
say,
once
the
groups
made
a
decision,
more
is
to
spend
time
on
how
to
rationalize
the
decision,
rather
than
to
re-examine and evaluate, even the group
members think about the assumptions again,
they
will
still
have
the
same
idea
like
before
and
make
the
same
decision
as
the
past(Moorhead.
G
et al
., 1991).
illusion of morality.
Members in the group believe that the
decision they made is absolutely
right,
there is no ethical problem. So they often ignore
the moral challenge. In an other
words,
they usually think that their decisions and
actions is undoubtedly very moral, which
they often neglect their decisions
within the ethical or moral consequences(Moorhead.
G
et al
., 1991).
Shared
stereotypes
of
out-
group
，
especially
Competitors.
When
groupthink
occurs,
members will seriously think that any
is opposed to their people or groups of people is
wrong,
they
even
think
their
opponents
are
too
weak,
stupid,
competitors
and
cannot
protect
themselves,
they
insist
that
the
scheme
has
been
obtained
of
their
group
will
achieve
a
great
success.
Furthermore,
they
think
those
opponents
are
difficult
to
communicate and coordinate, so they
disdain to argue with them. They just do what they
want to do(Moorhead. G
et
al
., 1991).
Direct pressure on
dissenters.
Groups with groupthink
don't appreciate different opinions
and
views, they always integrate different views. If
there is someone doubt the decisions
and plans made by the group, this group
always immediately given back. However, they
refute by mockery instead of powerful
and scientific evidence, such as some rude body
language(Janis,
1982).
In
this
case,
in
order
to
obtain
the
get
the
group
approval,
the
majority of people will choose to give
up their original views and keep consistent with
the
group when they are In the face of
such ridicule.
So that the
group lost opportunities for
improvement. There was a famous
experiment made by Asch(1956), he let everybody to
compare
the
length
of
line
segments.
He
took
a
card
with
a
vertical
line,
and
then
let
people compare the line and another
piece of card with 3 lines, he asked people which
line
is equal to
the initial line on
the
first card. Due
to
the
difference
of
these lines are
obvious, It is a very
easy judgment. However, after two times the normal
judgment, five
arranged volunteers said
a same wrong answer with one voice
deliberately.
So many of
the
volunteers
who
had
not
been
notified
in
advance
were
confused.
Finally,
the
conclusion of this
experiment is that most
people have the conformity tendency.
Which
means if a person's opinion is
not consistent with the views of the majority of
people in the
group, they may doubt
their own judgments and correct their views under
group pressure.
Self-
censorship.
This
can
also
be
said
as
members
withhold
criticisms.
When
group
members have opinions or views
significantly deviated from the consensus, they
tend to
review and modify their own
ideas, instead of question group's
opinion(Moorhead. G
et al
.,
1991). Members always keep silent when
they have doubts about the issues raised. They
always ignore their views and doubts.
They think their doubt and refute is not
important,
and they have no power to
question the decision made by most people or
wisdom of most
people.
Illusion of unanimity.
Such
symptoms can be said to be caused by the previous
symptom.
This
is
the
result
from
pressure
and
self
repression(Moorhead.
G
et
al
.,
1991).
It
is
assumed
that all the participants remain silent are in
favor of the views of the majority, But
this assumption is not true. This wrong
assumption make the community opinion seems
consistent, and the resulting group
unified illusion. Although it just uniformity of
the surface,
but will lead to the group
decision seems reasonable. The illusion of unity
caused by lack
of different views, even
can make a lot of ridiculous and evil action look
right.