decision making by a group (especially in a manner that discourages creativity or individual responsibility)
The forces that tend to suppress or resist divergent thinking when a group is working to accomplish a specific task within a limited period of time.
the distortion of reality testing and suspension of critical thinking which can occur in highly cohesive teams. Groupthink has been used to explain disasters such as Chernobyl and massive errors of political judgement such as the ‘Bay of Pigs' invasion of Cuba sponsored by the United States.
A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment in a group that results from an excessive desire to reach consensus.
A group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among group members to seek concurrence.
An undesirable condition in which all members of a group (e.g. a project team) begin to think alike or pretend to think alike. No members are then willing to raise object ions or concerns about a project even though they are legitimate and base d on hard data. [D02338] PMH p320
the tendency for small groups to form a consensus and resist criticism of a core position, often disregarding contradictory information in the process; group may ostracize members holding a different position (141) see also: cognitive consistency
The kind of faulty thinking often found in groups where pressures for agreement override a look at the alternatives. (See Irving Janis, Groupthink, 2nd ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1982).
A pattern of thinking that occurs when a group works on a problem, especially if the group is highly cohesive, faced by some external threat, and closed to outside information or opinions.
The tendency of members of some decision-making groups to suppress their own dissenting opinions in the interests of group consensus, thereby producing an inadequate decision-making process and poor decisions.
Where groups interpret information in accordance with existing mental models, with forces for consensus resulting in overly cautious and reinforcing interpretations, ignoring information that is not in keeping with existing views.
Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance. The term is usually used as a derogatory term after the results of a bad decision.
