Groupthink - Causes

Causes

Janis prescribed three antecedent conditions to groupthink.

1. High group cohesiveness
   • deindividuation: group cohesiveness becomes more important than individual freedom of expression
2. Structural faults:
   • insulation of the group
   • lack of impartial leadership
   • lack of norms requiring methodological procedures
   • homogeneity of members' social backgrounds and ideology
3. Situational context:
   • highly stressful external threats
   • recent failures
   • excessive difficulties on the decision-making task
   • moral dilemmas

Although it is possible for a situation to contain all three of these factors, all three are not always present even when groupthink is occurring. Janis considered a high degree of cohesiveness to be the most important antecedent to producing groupthink and always present when groupthink was occurring; however, he believed high cohesiveness would not always produce groupthink. A very cohesive group abides to all group norms; whether or not groupthink arises is dependent on what the group norms are. If the group encourages individual dissent and alternative strategies to problem solving, it is likely that groupthink will be avoided even in a highly cohesive group. This means that high cohesion will lead to groupthink only if one or both of the other antecedents is present, situational context being slightly more likely than structural faults to produce groupthink.