Symptoms of groupthink To make groupthink testable, Irving Janis devised eight symptoms indicative of groupthink (1977). 1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking. 2. Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions. 3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions. 4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, disfigured, impotent, or stupid. 5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty". 6. Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus. 7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement. 8. Mindguards â self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information. Groupthink, resulting from the symptoms listed above, results in defective decision making. That is, consensus-driven decisions are the result of the following practices of groupthinking: 1. Incomplete survey of alternatives 2. Incomplete survey of objectives 3. Failure to examine risks of prefered choice 4. Failure to reevaluate previously rejected alternatives 5. Poor information search 6. Selection bias in collecting information 7. Failure to work out contingency plans. Groupthink and de-individuation Cults are also studied by sociologists with regards to groupthink and its effect on deindividuation. The textbook definition states deindividuation as the loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster anonymity and draw attention away from the individual (Myers, 305) [edit] Preventing groupthink According to Irving Janis, decision making groups are not necessarily destined to groupthink. He devised seven ways of preventing groupthink (209-15): 1. Leaders should assign each member the role of âcritical evaluatorâ. This allows each member to freely air objections and doubts. 2. Higher-ups should not express an opinion when assigning a task to a group. 3. The organization should set up several independent groups, working on the same problem. 4. All effective alternatives should be examined. 5. Each member should discuss the group's ideas with trusted people outside of the group. 6. The group should invite outside experts into meetings. Group members should be allowed to discuss with and question the outside experts. 7. At least one group member should be assigned the role of Devil's advocate. This should be a different person for each meeting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink See also: cults, mob mentality, lynch mobs, mass psychological movements, the republican party, fascism, behavior of sheep, collective resentments, "they are with us or the terrorists", fallacy of false dilemma, crowd psychology, mobocracy, mobile vulgus, might makes right, demagoguery, collective hysteria, mass psychogenic illness, collective obsessional behavior, bandwagon effect, witch hunt, Hysterical contagion, Emergent-norm theory, and ET Town collective psychosis.
Or maybe you just excel in douchiness, and therefore lead everyone to logically conclude that your preferential treatment is b/c of a private relationship you have with ET. Just saying.
Anyone who has ever taken a college course in business management knows what groupthink means. ET, on balance, is too right wing.
Where there is a group, there is groupthink.... If you want me to elaborate, since choices are usually limited compared to the number of the people in any group, that leads to obvious thinking similarities, thus groupthink. Simple math really.....
A bunch of people on a subway, a group of people, does not necessarily generate groupthink. It takes a predisposition in the individuals to become a part of groupthink. What strikes me as so odd, is that independent minded traders would so easily conform to a groupthink situation. If anything, given the large number of so called "Libertarians" around here, one would imagine that groupthink would be the antithesis of what they want to be a part of...
Does it take an 'independent thinker' to stand against the crowd and declare that it's perfectly ok for a grown man to fuck 8 year old children, and that (fallen U.S. war hero) Pat Tillman was no better a man than (9/11 terrorist) Mohammad Atta? Maybe... but I've never seen your 'contrarianism' applied to anything constructive, only trollery. Worse yet, whenever anyone else comes up with an unconventional theory (like questioning medical orthodoxy's understanding of the brain chemistry behind clinical depression), you're always right at the center of the 'group', eager to pitch the first rotten tomato at the heretic. Such a commendable 'independent thinker'...
Still smarting from the bupe eeee dupe disaster are "we?" LOL!!! I see you conveniently forget the polling on that one, you know, where the majority saw you (correctly) as nothing but a junkie... Bonding with your brethren in ET Town, are "we"? LOL!!! Lody Rand would be so proud...
A little slow, are <i>we</i>? I told you three years ago why your tricks don't work, and still you fail to come up with any new ones. Is that really all you've got? And as for my theories on brain chemistry: Some details were a bit off (no matter how much you know, there's always more to learn), but the core concept is still rock solid, and I do see society (very) slowly catching up to my assertions. Have you seen this movie? <img src=http://holyhell.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/movie-poster_war-inc.jpg> It came out a few months ago, and wasn't anything special... except for one thing: The (Endorphin Deficiency Syndrome) protagonist <b>downing shots of tabasco sauce as an antidepressant- with positive results.</b> Now who the hell would think to do such an 'insane' thing? ....except that I've been doing exactly that for years, as mentioned on my website back in '07, along with my explanation of the scientific basis behind it. They're catching up to me, even if you can't. <i>"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."</i> ~Schopenhauer Notice anything different between when <i>I</i> step out on a limb to defy convention while exposing myself to ridicule... and when <i>you</i> do it? I try to help solve the problems people face, and you just try to help elementary school children get 'laid' by perverts.