Groupthink Is a Real Danger but It`s Not a Legal Excuse

In academia, groupthink tends to create permanent intellectual empires in which consensus is not the result of the search for truth, but the result of peer pressure typical of groupthink. This can outlive even the initial charismatic leader. From this perspective, skeptics can be seen as people with a high natural or trained ability to resist peer pressure. This is a dangerous social trait. As the social significance of group conformity is high, they have often been persecuted. Some heretics were burned at the stake in the Middle Ages. At the same time, many of humanity`s achievements (for example, the domination of secular states) are due to people who sacrificed their lives to defend their own view of things and events. In the Middle Ages, this was linked to the questioning of religious dogma. The term “groupthink” is closely related to terms such as propaganda, social influences on individuals, group cohesion and especially brainwashing. There are several similar terms, with the most popular alternative term being “political correctness.” Another closely related term is conformism (which is more of an individual characteristic of the person – the inability to resist peer pressure). The mentality of the “herd” and, satirically, the mentality of the “fries of freedom” are also linked. Groupthink theory continues to be relevant to organizations due to the organizational trend towards self-directed work teams. A typology is developed that combines the main distinguishing characteristics of self-managed teams with groupthink that precursors group cohesion, structural errors in the organization and provocative situational contexts.

Based on this framework, we study in particular the variables that influence the emergence of groupthink in self-managed teams. The implications for the prevention of groupthink in autonomous teams will be discussed. This article provides an explanation of decision fiascos that reflects recent theoretical trends and was developed in response to a growing body of research that has failed to support the groupthink model (Janis, 1982). In this new framework, the lack of vigilance and preference for risks that characterize groups contaminated by groupthink are largely attributed to the perception of collective effectiveness that excessively exceeds capabilities. High collective effectiveness can also contribute to the negative shaping of decisions and to certain administrative and organizational structural errors. In critical decisions, these factors induce a preference for risk and a strong tendency towards competition, which, facilitated by group polarization, crystallizes around a decision option that is likely to fail. The implications for research and some supporting evidence of this approach for the phenomenon of groupthink will also be discussed. Janis defines groupthink as the psychological impulse of consensus at all costs that suppresses dissent and prevents the evaluation of alternatives in cohesive decision-making groups. In this first issue, Janis has shown how this phenomenon has contributed to some of the greatest fiascos in US foreign policy in recent decades: the Korean War stalemate, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the inability to prepare for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Bay of Pigs mistake. He also looked at cases such as the handling of the Cuban missile crisis and the formulation of the Marshall Plan, where groupthink was avoided.

This brings me to what is probably the most important element of all this for readers: the CYA principle and investment. Gavekal has written extensively about the dangers of indexing (see for example Exponential Optimization). We have also argued that indexation is the new fashionable form of socialism. Capital is not divided according to its marginal return—the foundation on which capitalism rests. Instead, capital is distributed according to the size of the firms. Just like in the days of the former Soviet Union or Maoist China, the bigger you are, the more capital you get. It`s hard to imagine a dumber way to allocate one of the most important resources on which future growth depends. Why is indexing so popular? Quite simply, this is CYA`s ultimate strategy. The main problem with groupthink is that, although it is a fundamental and intrinsic characteristic of social groups, it is often cultivated and reinforced by the elite. Extreme forms of “cultured groupthink” (via the brainwashing of MSM) such as McCarthyism`s witch-hunt are the cornerstone of corporatism and are associated with very dangerous forms of social organization of society as neo-fascism.

The Bolsheviks, the Italian fascists under Mussolini and the NSDAP were probably pioneers among political parties whose leaders understood the power of groupthink in society and managed to use it to gain and maintain political power.