In this week’s lesson we learned quite a bit about groups, teams, etc, and how they work and what could make them better or worse. One topic interested me in particular and that was about groupthink. What is groupthink? Groupthink can be defined as “a process of flawed decision making that occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach agreement” ( Gruman et al., 2016). Now, already in the definition it sets it up as a negative connotation as the definition has the word “flawed” in it. I can agree that this sort of process is not a good way to go about things in a group or even a great way to think overall, but I still wanted to do some digging of my own to see if there were any kind of positives that could be found.
Ultimately, I did not find many pros to this process, which I had anticipated , and the pros that I did find did not outweigh the negatives. I will still share them anyway however. One pro that I have found on multiple sources is that ultimately there is consensus and alignment. Although even though there is alignment and consensus coming from the group, it does not mean that it came because everyone actually agreed it can come from fear. Groupthink assumes the best, sees big risks as an opportunity, there is quicker decision-making, and it can reduce anxiety (LaVine, 2023). Now, myself, and I am sure others can come back with a rebuttal on how these pros are not actually pros. For example, who is it reducing anxiety for? The ones who are taking charge, or the ones who are too nervous to speak up? Although it takes the anxiety away in the moment, I know if I did not speak my mind during something such as a group project, the whole time I would be thinking about how I wish I would have said something, or how much I actually don’t like what we are doing. Lastly, some cons of groupthink are that there is failure to listen to those who have a differing in opinion, there is lack of creativity, inability to see other solutions, overconfidence, ignoring important information, etc (Cherry, 2022). The list of the cons goes on for a lot longer than the pros. Although I was already skeptical about finding pros for groupthink, even my small research can help highlight that there is more bad than good when it comes to groupthink.
References:
Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, edited by Jamie A. Gruman, et al., SAGE Publications, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=5945490.
Cherry, K. (2022, November 12). How Groupthink Impacts Our Behavior. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-groupthink-2795213#toc-potential-pitfalls
LaVine, R. (2023, April 3). What is groupthink? 18 simple strategies to avoid it. Science of People. https://www.scienceofpeople.com/what-is-groupthink-18-simple-strategies-to-avoid-it/
Group think is so interesting to me; I remember in one of my psych classes we really dug into the group think process when it came to the challenger disaster. Group think can lead to a general consensus within the group like you mentioned, but it is often not the result of group members actually all agreeing. Often it leads to extreme decisions being made that are ultimately unwise. (Schaedig, 2023) Such as in the case of the challenger. Often times the people in the group who speak out against the decision are outcast or ridiculed, making them break down and agree, or at least stop standing against the proposed decision. (Schaedig, 2023) In the case of the challenger, those who thought it wasn’t a good idea were met with disapproval because the decision to launch was made and they didn’t want negative press or to put it off. The people in charge didn’t really want to hear about their concerns, they just wanted to go ahead with their original plan, so they looked for group members who agreed to support their decision and overrule the group. Some ways to avoid group think are first of all a good leader that is able to remain impartial through the decision-making process. (Schaedig, 2023) I feel this is one of the most important. Another way to avoid group think is to divide the group into smaller subgroups, where they can brainstorm and come to a decision, then come back together as a whole and see what everyone came up with. (Schaedig, 2023) Group think has a lot of cons that can lead to devastating results, it is really important people are educated on what group think is and how to avoid it so we can avoid disasters like the challenger explosion from happening in the future. Great post!
References
Schaedig, D. (2023, July 31). Groupthink: Definition, signs, examples, and how to avoid it. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/groupthink.html