Groupthink: Definition, Causes, & Prevention​

By Charlie Huntington, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Groupthink is when groups become more focused on feeling cohesive and agreeing with each other than on being rigorous and objective. Let’s see why this happens and how to stop it.​
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In ninth grade, two friends and I had to create a history project for a national competition. All three of us chafed at the idea – we were not the poster-making types, not very handy with designing displays. Eventually, though, we talked ourselves into creating a poster that documented the revolutionary nature of rock and roll music. Looking back, it was more an excuse to read about our favorite musicians than to try to say something original or insightful about history.​
When we received a middling final grade for our efforts, we were a bit confused and disappointed. It had seemed like we were creating something great! Then we thought back on the work done by our classmates, how thorough and polished their projects had been. Somehow, in the echo-chamber of our own group dynamics, we had convinced ourselves we were aiming bigger and achieving more than we actually had. In our rush to create something “cool” together, we had become very enthusiastic about our vision, but it had ended up being mediocre at best.

With hindsight, I can see that my friends and I were having our first experience of groupthink in this moment. What is groupthink, and how could we have avoided falling into its trap?
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What Is Groupthink? (A Definition)​

Groupthink is a phenomenon that emerges place over time when people gather in groups. According to the originator of the idea of groupthink, when people in a group start to develop a strong sense of connection with each other, they begin to prioritize harmony and agreement over being realistic and considering all potential courses of action (Janis, 1982). Instead of questioning and critiquing one another’s ideas, for example, people under the influence of groupthink will simply agree with each other, which allows the group to maintain its sense of cohesion and unity.​

Opposite of Groupthink​

The opposite of groupthink is maintaining a group culture where people can and must challenge each other’s ideas (MacDougall & Baum, 1997). For example, a group might have a policy that before making any decision, somebody has to play the devil’s advocate and point out all the flaws or pitfalls in the plan as it stands. A person operating from the opposite mindset of groupthink would be constantly checking to see if people are conforming just to maintain the goodwill and harmony of the group; they would have to vigorously defend against the tendency we all have to want to be pleasing to others when our gut tells us the group’s ideas are bad.​

Causes of Groupthink

Groupthink seems to emerge from social anxiety and a desire to achieve social acceptance through conforming to group norms (Janis, 1982). It is generally threatening to us, as human beings, to be out of synch or harmony with the people around us.
 
If there are expectations within a group that will counter the tendency toward groupthink, such as rules that protect and encourage dissent, people may be less susceptible to this anxiety. But otherwise, groups can tend to become echo chambers, with the mere fact that people are gathered together creating pressure to conform (Forsyth, 2020). Groups that operate in isolation and that lack accountability to people outside the group may be especially vulnerable to engaging in groupthink (Forsyth, 2020).​

​Groupthink seems to unfold organically and to often go unrecognized by the people in the group. As some of the examples I will share below demonstrate, it is only after the group has made an unfortunate decision that it becomes aware of its faulty thinking. My theory on why this happens is that groupthink is naturally self-reinforcing. When my friends and I were working on that project, it felt good to be in such a state of flow and agreement. Surely, because things felt so good, we must have been on the right track? It would have “ruined the moment”, and the group momentum, for one of us to question whether we needed a more rigorous approach.

Groupthink in Psychology

Psychologists have noted that groupthink is one manifestation of a pattern of humans generally desiring and prioritizing consistency (Janis, 1982). When this innate desire leads us to push back on criticism or hold our tongues when we have doubts in a group, we are at starting to show the warning signs of groupthink. 
 
Groupthink can develop among friend groups, where we have a natural desire to want harmony and good feelings, but it seems to be driven even more by identifying strongly with a group or finding the people around you very socially attractive (Hogg & Hains, 1998). In other words, if you put me in a room full of people I really want to impress and have like me, I will probably not jump at the chance to contradict them, even if I’m very convinced that my point is valid. At the same time, if you gather a bunch of world-class experts in a room and ask them to solve a problem, they may be so identified with their role – “we are experts, on a panel of experts” – that they may become distracted by wanting to feel smart and prove their group worthy, losing some of their focus on finding the right solutions. 

Groupthink Theory

According to Janis (1982)’s theory of groupthink, there are five stages to the process of groupthink:
 
  • Antecedents. Certain pre-existing conditions are important for groupthink to emerge. First, the group must be highly cohesive, with strong connections among members, a firm sense of identity, and a strong sense of purpose. Second, the group must have some structural defects that will allow groupthink to form more readily. For example, the group might face no accountability from outside forces, lack a diversity of perspectives, or be run by a partial, biased leader. Third, the group might have some kind of stressors present that hamper its effectiveness. For example, it might be under significant time pressure or be having difficulty reaching its goals.
 
  • Concurrence seeking. Groupthink begins when group members start publicly agreeing about things with which they privately disagree. I think of this as the “unspoken peer pressure moment.” If everyone else seems to feel one way, we feel some degree of urgency to go along with them, rather than rock the boat and risk conflict.
 
  • Symptoms of groupthink. The following symptoms start to appear as a group begins to practice concurrence seeking. Pressure to conform starts to grow; people start to rationalize together to justify decisions, rather than debating; and the group starts to perceive people outside the group as less knowledgeable or capable. These patterns lead to additional symptoms: a sense of being invulnerable, feeling morally justified, and group members perceiving themselves to be utterly united.
 
  • Decision-making defects. From these symptoms, poor decision-making naturally follows. Groups become more likely to stop conversations without considering all alternatives, and less likely to examine their own objectives, acknowledge all the risks associated with their decisions, make contingency plans, and continue doing data collection.
 
  • Poor outcomes. The end result of this progression is undesirable outcomes. Groups that have become so uniform in their approach and apparent beliefs will generally make decisions that are not fully considered and are less likely to give them the outcomes they seek.

Groupthink Symptoms​

Now that we know the nature of the groupthink progression, we can consider in a little more depth what the symptoms look like in practice (Janis, 1982). Imagine a small non-profit that has weekly development meetings, where the goal is to secure desperately needed funding to keep the organization running. It is led by the founder and director, who does not like hearing bad news and believes that the organization must be taken in a certain direction in order to sustain itself.
 
At these weekly meetings, the director responds passive-aggressively when people bring up critiques of his newest grant application. Over time, another member of the organization seems to have fashioned herself a “mind guard”: she begins to question her colleagues about their commitment to the organization when they express any doubts. Over time, employees begin to self-censor; they have decided there is no point in voicing their objections. To appear like invested employees, they even start to join in on rationalizing the director’s decisions.
 
In this example, the external pressure and biased leader have set the stage for groupthink to develop. Driven by their desire for the group to function well and experience agreement, employees begin to either self-censor or censor others in their dissent. These meetings are unlikely to generate a well-considered and comprehensive grant application.​

Groupthink Prevention

One clear way to prevent groupthink is to promote and prioritize diverse voices. For example, one study found that groupthink is less likely when people who are bicultural, meaning they hold multiple cultural identities, are present in a group (Mok & Morris, 2010).
 
While this research finding clearly supports efforts to bring people with a variety of identities to the decision-making table, diverse perspectives can also be stimulated through intentional practices within a group setting. As noted above, appointing one person as a devil’s advocate may help groups avoid falling into rushed or incomplete consensus (MacDougall & Baum, 1997). Group members could also be expected to bring lists of both pros and cons for their ideas. And groups can bring in outside consultants, who do not share their group norms and sense of cohesion, to inform their decision-making, as these individuals will be less susceptible to groupthink.

Examples of Groupthink in History

Examples of groupthink abound in history, especially American history. The originator of the concept of groupthink pointed to the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1962, in which the U.S. military, with the backing of President John F. Kennedy and all of his advisers, trained exiled Cubans to invade their home country and liberate it from communism, as a classic example (Janis, 1982). All the decision-makers grossly underestimated how much the Cuban people liked communism; they also underestimated the resistance from the Cuban military, which quickly quashed the attempted assault by the exiles.
 
Similar errors of groupthink from mid-20th century American history include increasing the American military presence in Vietnam and leaving Pearl Harbor undefended during World War II. In the first instance, the government thought North Vietnam would muster only minimal resistance to U.S. troops, and in the latter instance military leadership dismissed out of hand the possibility of an assault from Japan.
 
A more recent example comes with the decision by George W. Bush and his advisers to invade Iraq in the early 2000s (Badie, 2010). The theory that invasion would help “connect the dots” between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden was never substantiated, but the people advocating for war refused to look at the data and did their best to shout down and convince those who dissented.​

Examples of Groupthink in Real Life

Groupthink also often occurs in online spaces, such as on social media and online forums. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, online spaces became isolated echo chambers where dissent was strongly discouraged, particularly among people who opposed quarantine measures (Forsyth, 2020). Short of changing algorithms in very substantial ways, it is difficult to identify ways to avoid this pattern of groupthink developing in online spaces.​

Groupthink vs Abilene Paradox

The Abilene Paradox is the name one scholar gave to an experience he had that resembles groupthink in some substantial ways. The author described driving 35 miles each way to Abilene, Texas, on a miserably hot summer’s day and in a car without air conditioning, because every family member in the car thought all the other family members wanted to eat at a particular restaurant (Harvey, 1974). In reality, none of them did. The primary difference here is that when people experience groupthink, they are usually feeling energized and connected to the group, while in the Abilene Paradox, group members are resigned to painfully going along with what the group seems to want (Kim, 2001).​

Groupthink in the Workplace

Groupthink is common in workplace settings where the antecedents mentioned before are present. It seems that hierarchical structures within organizations can cause subordinates to conform to their supervisors’ wishes, in a pattern consistent with groupthink (Benabou, 2013).

For more information about how groupthink may be prevented both inside and outside of professional settings, you might watch this video:

Video: What is Group Think? ...and How to Prevent It

Articles Related to Groupthink

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Groupthink

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Groupthink​

A recent survey of research on groupthink found that while it seems to happen, it is hard to measure and describe effectively with scientific research, because it is a very complex process (Rose, 2011). This leads me to conclude that we should not be too hard on ourselves if we find ourselves falling into these patterns. If we just remember that this is a natural human tendency, we may be able to gracefully acknowledge when as a group we are getting a bit shortsighted, or patting ourselves too much on the back.​

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