Groupthink

Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a very rationalistic way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift).

Related Topics:
Psychologist - Irving Janis - 1972 - Irrational - Consensus - Risky shift

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Janis' original definition of the term was "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." The word groupthink was intended to be reminiscent of George Orwell's coinages (such as doublethink and duckspeak) from the fictional language Newspeak, which he portrayed in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Related Topics:
George Orwell - Doublethink - Duckspeak - Newspeak - Nineteen Eighty-Four

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Groupthink tends to occur on committees and in large organizations. Janis originally studied the Pearl Harbor bombing, the Vietnam War and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Recently, in 2004, the US Senate Intelligence Committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq blamed groupthink for failures to interpret intelligence relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities correctly.{{ref|Iraq}}

Related Topics:
Committee - Pearl Harbor - Vietnam War - Bay of Pigs Invasion - 2004 - US - Senate Intelligence Committee - Weapons of mass destruction

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~