Question

Groupthink is a serious problem because it can influence people to make bad decisions. First, what is the psychological attribute of groups that is most heavily involved in groupthink? Provide a short description of groupthink, identifying the factors that give it its name. What is the second major factor in groupthink?

Answer 1

Group think is a tendency for a group of people to conform to the groups point of view instead of critically analyzing or rationally thinking about the decision. The group members suppress their own viewpoints and avoid raising contradictory or conflicting views, and avoid conflict and harmony at the expense of critical evaluation.

The factors in which group think is more likely are:

• The group is highly cohesive, where people do not speak out against each other and generally agree on others points of views.
• The leaders of the group is dominant and may express their views before others, whereby influencing others.
• The group is isolated from outside influences.

A major concept in groupthink is group polarization. Group polarization happens when initially the dominant point of view is taken to a more extreme position. A group starts with an initial view which is less risky but moves to a riskier view through group think, this is known as risk shift.