The definition of groupthink

I teach critical thinking to my college classes. One of the critical thinking concepts we talk about is the danger of groupthink, which is defined as:

- An illusion of invulnerability by the group
- An unquestioned belief in the morality of the group
- Collective efforts by the group members to rationalize faulty decisions
- Stereotypical views of enemy leaders as evil, weak or ineffective
- Self-censorship of alternatives viewpoints
- Shared illusion that all group members think the same thing
- Direct pressure on group members expressing divergent views
- The emergence of “mind guards” to screen the group from information contradictory to the prevailing opinion

Does this sound at all familiar?

It describes IBM when personal computers were just coming into their own. IBM, then the king of the big mainframe, convinced itself that there was no market for PCs and decided not to pursue that market until Mac and Compag and Dell nearly ate their lunch. It describes the U.S. Big Three automakers and their attitude about small, fuel efficient Japanese cars vs. their big and showy American models. Between them GM and Ford recently announced they will downsize some 60,000 jobs out of existence.

And it describes to a T the Bush administration and Republican Party --- a "you're either with me or against me" position on key issues (what W told the world when he decided unilaterally to invade Iraq); efforts to rationalize faulty decisions (the constantly changing rationales for why we invaded Iraq in the first place); zero tolerance for divergent views (why do you think Colin Powell was forced out); an illustion of invulnerability (the President can interpret the Constitution any way he sees fit); and an unquestioned belief in the morality of the group (W is acting according to messages he's received from God).

Groupthink did not serve IBM and the Big Three automakers well; as currently practiced in the White House and Congress it is not serving the American people well.