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 92
... danger of a full - scale attack against Pearl Harbor as extremely small . In both the formal directives and the informal letters he wrote to Ad- miral Kimmel he often inserted his personal beliefs about Pearl Harbor's relatively safe ...
... danger of a full - scale attack against Pearl Harbor as extremely small . In both the formal directives and the informal letters he wrote to Ad- miral Kimmel he often inserted his personal beliefs about Pearl Harbor's relatively safe ...
Page 122
... danger that the strike might widen the war by forcing other countries into the fighting . 4. The danger of heavy civilian casualties . At the Tuesday lunch , President Johnson and his advisers worked over each of the target sheets like ...
... danger that the strike might widen the war by forcing other countries into the fighting . 4. The danger of heavy civilian casualties . At the Tuesday lunch , President Johnson and his advisers worked over each of the target sheets like ...
Page 245
... danger " of a groupthink type of decision . Dangers do not always materialize and can sometimes be prevented by precautionary measures . Structural features of the group and situational con- text factors ( represented by boxes B - 1 and ...
... danger " of a groupthink type of decision . Dangers do not always materialize and can sometimes be prevented by precautionary measures . Structural features of the group and situational con- text factors ( represented by boxes B - 1 and ...
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