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 12
... sources of human error can prevent government leaders from arriving at well worked out decisions , resulting in failures to achieve their practical objectives and violations of their own standards of ethical conduct . But , unlike ...
... sources of human error can prevent government leaders from arriving at well worked out decisions , resulting in failures to achieve their practical objectives and violations of their own standards of ethical conduct . But , unlike ...
Page 110
... sources of stress whenever they have to make an important foreign policy decision . Even if the President alone is officially responsible , each of his close advisers knows that if the group makes a serious error and the prestige of the ...
... sources of stress whenever they have to make an important foreign policy decision . Even if the President alone is officially responsible , each of his close advisers knows that if the group makes a serious error and the prestige of the ...
Page 301
... sources ( in- volving potential lowering of self - esteem ) as well as external sources of threat ( involving fear of failure or defeat ) is consistently low among the members of a cohesive policy - making group . If it turns out that ...
... sources ( in- volving potential lowering of self - esteem ) as well as external sources of threat ( involving fear of failure or defeat ) is consistently low among the members of a cohesive policy - making group . If it turns out that ...
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