Analysis Of Groupthink

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Summary The reading “Groupthink: The desperate Drive for Consensus at Any Cost” written by Irving L. Janis analyses the problems associated with the cohesiveness in groupthink during policy decision-making. The groupthink opens the problem of conformity in which individuals start to feel pressure and stress to form part of the group’s decisions, although he or she may not completely agree with the implementation of a policy or decision. The author presents historical scenarios called “fiascos” such as “The bag of pigs” and “Pearl Harbor” could have been prevented if individuals should have committed themselves to resist to the pressures of the group. Janis argued, “The men who participated in making the Bay of Pigs decision, for instance, …show more content…

Individuals working under constant stress may not be able to conduct critical judgment due to constant pressures form others. The author indicates that members may take little or no time discussing important policies or decisions that can affect human life, a great example of this is President Bush decision to initiate a war against Iraq. Many administrators and heads of agencies felt psychological stress and pressured to support the decision. 2. “As we see, victims of groupthink ignore warnings; they also collectively construct rationalizations in order to discount warnings and other forms of negative feedback…” (p.163). The second tenet of groupthink indicates that those individuals that feel victimized by the cohesive group may ignore the warning signs by thinking that the decision has been analyzed by others. The avoidance of critical thinking and rational discussions may lead victims of groupthink to take decisions that could have been prevented if the signs were detected since the beginning. 3. “This symptom results partly from the preceding one, whose effects are augmented by the false assumption that any individual who remains silent during any part of the discussion is in full accord with the other saying”

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