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. |
From inside the book
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Page 68
... advisers with the blunt end of a pencil , Harry Truman did his nudging with a cattle prod . Of course , Truman was far from a dictatorial or authoritarian leader . Throughout his seven years in the White House , he sought to base his ...
... advisers with the blunt end of a pencil , Harry Truman did his nudging with a cattle prod . Of course , Truman was far from a dictatorial or authoritarian leader . Throughout his seven years in the White House , he sought to base his ...
Page 69
... advisers to adopt the position he favored , it might be argued that the group's failure to examine alternatives and ... advisers was a product of group processes rather than exclusively a matter of sycophantic yielding to the President's ...
... advisers to adopt the position he favored , it might be argued that the group's failure to examine alternatives and ... advisers was a product of group processes rather than exclusively a matter of sycophantic yielding to the President's ...
Page 77
... advisers As the various warnings were received , each decision by the naval com- mand at Hawaii was made after considerable discussion in formal confer- ences and informal conversations , which Admiral Kimmel regularly con- ducted with ...
... advisers As the various warnings were received , each decision by the naval com- mand at Hawaii was made after considerable discussion in formal confer- ences and informal conversations , which Admiral Kimmel regularly con- ducted with ...
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 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 forces group dynamics groupthink hypothesis groupthink syndrome groupthink tendencies Haldeman Hawaii Ibid in-group inner circle invasion plan issues Japanese Johnson Joint Chiefs judgment Kennan Kennedy's Korean War leader major Marshall 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 sion social Soviet Union stereotypes stress symptoms of groupthink thinking threat tion transcripts Truman Vietnam Vietnam War warning Watergate cover-up White House group Wohlstetter