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groupthink
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groupthink

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Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation.

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Groupthink
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~41 min read

Article

28 sections
Contents
  • Overview
  • History
  • Symptoms
  • Causes
  • Prevention
  • Examples
  • Empirical findings and meta-analysis
  • Case studies
  • Politics and military
  • Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Pearl Harbor
  • Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster
  • Corporate world
  • Swissair
  • Marks & Spencer and British Airways
  • Sports
  • Recent developments
  • Ubiquity model
  • General group problem-solving (GGPS) model
  • Reexamination
  • Reformulation
  • Sociocognitive theory
  • Collective illusions
  • In popular culture
  • References
  • Further reading
  • Articles
  • Books

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation.

Groupthink is a construct of social psychology but has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields of communication studies, political science, management, and organizational theory, as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behaviour.

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