The Nature of Social Influence in Groupthink: Compliance and Internalization

@article{citeulike:1390672, abstract = {Janis's (1982b) discussion of groupthink is examined to clarify the nature of social influence leading to poor decision making. Beginning from Janis's definition of groupthink as premature consensus seeking, the question raised here is whether compliance (public without private agreement) may be as important as internalization (private acceptance of group consensus) in this phenomenon. Analysis of the conditions hypothesized by Janis to be conducive to groupthink suggests that, contrary to some of Janis's discussion, these conditions conduce to compliance as well as to internalization. Consistent with this suggestion, a review of the historical examples cited by Janis indicates that compliance was an important part of poor decision making in at least two of these cases. The review also indicates that structural conditions, notably promotional leadership and group insulation, predict occurrence or nonoccurrence of groupthink in Janis's examples, but that neither cohesion nor any situational condition is predictive. Experimental studies of groupthink are reviewed in light of this analysis, and suggestions are offered for future research.}, author = {Mccauley, Clark }, citeulike-article-id = {1390672}, journal = {Journal of Personality and Social Psychology}, keywords = {groupthink, psychology}, month = {August}, number = {2}, pages = {250--260}, posted-at = {2007-06-14 22:21:46}, priority = {2}, title = {The Nature of Social Influence in Groupthink: Compliance and Internalization}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6X01-46X8T2G-30/2/4b265c8e2ab6f4bbff4238deadb24a8e}, volume = {57}, year = {1989} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1390672 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1390672 N2 - Janis's (1982b) discussion of groupthink is examined to clarify the nature of social influence leading to poor decision making. Beginning from Janis's definition of groupthink as premature consensus seeking, the question raised here is whether compliance (public without private agreement) may be as important as internalization (private acceptance of group consensus) in this phenomenon. Analysis of the conditions hypothesized by Janis to be conducive to groupthink suggests that, contrary to some of Janis's discussion, these conditions conduce to compliance as well as to internalization. Consistent with this suggestion, a review of the historical examples cited by Janis indicates that compliance was an important part of poor decision making in at least two of these cases. The review also indicates that structural conditions, notably promotional leadership and group insulation, predict occurrence or nonoccurrence of groupthink in Janis's examples, but that neither cohesion nor any situational condition is predictive. Experimental studies of groupthink are reviewed in light of this analysis, and suggestions are offered for future research. IS - 2 JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology EP - 260 TI - The Nature of Social Influence in Groupthink: Compliance and Internalization VL - 57 SP - 250 KW - groupthink KW - psychology AU - Mccauley, Clark PY - 1989/08// UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6X01-46X8T2G-30/2/4b265c8e2ab6f4bbff4238deadb24a8e ER -