Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and FiascoesGroupthink - the psychological drive for consensus at any cost that suppresses disagreement and prevents the appraisal of alternatives in cohesive decision-making groups. In the first edition (Victims of groupthink), Iriving L. Janis showed how this phenomenon contributed to some of the major U.S. foreign policy fiascos of recent decades: the Korean War stalemate, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the failure to be prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Bay of Pigs blunder. He also examined cases, such as the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the formulation of the Marshall Plan, where groupthink was avoided. Here, in this revised and expanded edition, Janis applies his hypothesis to the Watergate cover-up, portraying in detail how groupthink helped to put the participants on a disastrous couurse and keep them there. In addition, he presents some fresh ideas on how and why groupthink occurs and offers suggestions for avoiding it. |
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Page 19
... assumptions if at the group meetings they had been more critical and probing in fulfilling their advisory roles . Assumption number 1 : No one will know that the United States was responsible for the invasion of Cuba . Most people will ...
... assumptions if at the group meetings they had been more critical and probing in fulfilling their advisory roles . Assumption number 1 : No one will know that the United States was responsible for the invasion of Cuba . Most people will ...
Page 27
... assumptions have been avoided if the advisory group had sought fuller information and had taken it into account ? Some of the grossest errors resulted from faulty plan- ning and communication within the CIA . ' The agency obviously had ...
... assumptions have been avoided if the advisory group had sought fuller information and had taken it into account ? Some of the grossest errors resulted from faulty plan- ning and communication within the CIA . ' The agency obviously had ...
Page 33
... assumption - which he undoubtedly was expressing in greatly exaggerated form - that the military had special skill unavailable to other assessors of the invasion plan ? Some of the false assumptions on which the plan was based - such as ...
... assumption - which he undoubtedly was expressing in greatly exaggerated form - that the military had special skill unavailable to other assessors of the invasion plan ? Some of the false assumptions on which the plan was based - such as ...
Contents
Why So Many Miscalculations? | 2 |
The Bay of Pigs | 14 |
The Wrong | 48 |
Copyright | |
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Acheson administration Admiral Kimmel advisers advisory group Allen Dulles alternative American assumptions attack avoid Bay of Pigs bombing Castro Chiefs of Staff Chinese cohesive group Communist concurrence-seeking consensus course of action critical Cuba Cuban missile crisis danger Dean Defense deliberations discussion effect Ehrlichman enemy evidence Executive Committee expected fiasco group dynamics groupthink hypothesis groupthink syndrome groupthink tendencies Haldeman Hawaii Ibid in-group inner circle invasion plan Japanese Johnson Joint Chiefs judgment Kennan Kennedy's Korean War leader MacArthur's major Marshall Plan McNamara meetings military moral naval Navy group Nixon norms North Korea North Vietnam officers participants Pearl Harbor Pentagon Papers policy-making group political present President Kennedy President's pressures problem procedures psychological questions responsible risks Robert Kennedy role Rusk Schlesinger Secretary shared social Sorensen Soviet Union stereotypes stress symptoms of groupthink thinking threat tion transcripts Truman Vietnam Vietnam War warning Watergate cover-up White House group Wohlstetter