Groupthink occurs when a group's overriding concern is with consensus and mutual agreement rather than to conduct a critical analysis of alternatives in order to reach the best decision. It can have quite disastrous consequences, like those described in Janis's (1972) famous analysis of President Kennedy's decision to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Faulty reasoning and misreading vital signals among his cabinet were the consequence of a strong desire for mutual support in such a high-pressured and uncertain situation. The strong leadership of the President also contributed to members of the group not wishing to, or even thinking of, challenging the solution. Because the President thought it was the right course of action, it must have been.
We don't often find ourselves in the position of having to decide whether to invade Cuba or not, but we do find ourselves in similar situations of high pressure and needing to find solutions fast. Research by Moorhead, Ference and Neck (1991) identifies the primary conditions for groupthink as:
- high group cohesiveness
- the leader's promotion of his or her preferred solution
- insulation of the group from expert opinion.
However, in a review of groupthink research, Esser (1998) concluded that cohesiveness is not, in fact a predictor of groupthink. However, insulation, promotional leadership, homogeneity of members' ideologies and lack of methodical decision-making processes were the best predictors of groupthink.
The dangers of groupthink are real to us all. The desire to find consensus can be strong. These desires, however, can lead to faulty decision processes in which only limited and biased information is sought and inadequate analysis of the problem and potential solutions is undertaken.