The Devil's Advocate

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Group dynamics The benefits of the Devil’s Advocacy depends heavily on the groups attitudes toward the technique. In the ideal situation, the group welcomes the technique, leading to advantages for the group’s dynamics. In that case, the technique creates the opportunity for individuals to express unpopular opinions while protecting those who present them (George & Stern, 2002). Israeli military intelligence institutionalized the Devil’s Advocate with reportedly good results for the open-mindedness of analysts (Kuperwasser, 2007). Correspondingly, many studies strongly suggest that the performance enhances when the culture protects minority views; for instance increasing creative thinking (George & Stern, 2002; Nemeth & Nemeth-Brown, 2003). …show more content…

Jervis (1976, p.416) accurately put it: “there are limits to the utility of a devil’s advocate who is not a true devil”. In this case, analysts don’t expect the Devil’s Advocate to express genuine concerns and not consider his arguments as a serious expression of doubts (Heuer & Pherson, 2010). The Devil’s Advocate role doesn’t require true belief in the argument he defends, hence, the artificial introduction of dissident view is problematic (Handel, 1984; George, 2004). Whenever the analysts perceive the exercise as something they have to put up with, the Devil’s Advocate loses impact and is merely viewed as wrong simply because of the role. Respectively, it is the institutionalization of the cry-wolf problem (Betts, 1978; Brady, 1993). In the worst case scenario, the Devil’s Advocate receives hostile attitudes from the group and face considerable resistance for countering the group's judgement and simply causing unnecessary trouble (George, 2004). Resultingly, the Devil’s Advocacy is ineffective if analysts do not put credence in the technique and single him out. A possible serious disadvantage would be when the Devil’s Advocate expresses true doubts and the group doesn’t actually listen to his arguments (Handel,

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