Self-study
P1
In principle, a cohesive group—one whose members generally agree with one another and support one another's judgments—can do a much better job at decision making than it could if it were noncohesive. ███
intro topic ·
Cohesive group can have better decision-making than non-cohesive group
Cohesive group = members generally agree with each other and support each other's judgments.
Causal mechanism ·
Group members more willing to say what they think
When cohesiveness is low, people are less willing to speak freely because of fear of social harm.
P2
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High cohesion can have risks ·
Can be less likely to deviate from majority opinion
Causal mechanism ·
Groupthink
Members of high-cohesion group may not scrutinize others' proposals. They'll either think the proposal is good without critical thinking, or they'll suppress any doubts for the benefit of group consensus.
P3
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Factors that can lead to groupthink ·
Overestimating group's power and morality, closed-mindedness, pressure toward uniformity
Requirement for groupthink ·
Cohesion in group is necessary, but not sufficient, for groupthink
Let's do some more research on other factors that can lead to groupthink.
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
27.
Based on the passage, it ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Highly cohesive groups ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████████
Not supported, because the author doesn’t discuss how groups interact with adversaries (people outside the group). She only discusses how group members interact with other group members.
b
It is difficult ███ █ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ █ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████████
Supported, because the author states
c
A group with ██████ ██████████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ █ █████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████████
Not supported, because disagreement about a particular issue can be something that contributes to better decisionmaking. If group members disagree about an issue, that can indicate that
d
Intense stress and ████ ████████████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████
Not supported, because the author never discusses stress or expectations.
e
Noncohesive groups can, █████ ███████ ██████████████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████
Not supported, because the author never indicates that noncohesive groups might develop groupthink symptoms. She indicates that high cohesion isn’t sufficient for groupthink, but this doesn’t imply that a group with no cohesion might exhibit symptoms of groupthink.