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.
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.
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
20.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Main point
The author focuses on describing the phenomenon known as groupthink. She introduces it and explains its causal mechanism in P2, and in P3 indicates that researchers hypothesize that groupthink was at play in some major diplomatic and military disasters.
This best captures the author’s point, which is that groupthink is a phenomenon that can negatively affect decision-making when they’re high cohesiveness. She expresses this point in P2 and supports it with a description of the causal mechanism underlying groupthink.
b
Group members can █████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ █ ████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████
Not supported, because the author never suggests that a group member’s awareness of cohesion and the role it plays in decisionmaking has any effect on the likelihood of groupthink occurring. Since (B) is not supported, it can’t be the main point.
c
Groupthink is a █████████████ ██████████ ███████████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ████████
Although the author notes that certain researchers believe groupthink was at play in certain diplomatic and military disasters, the point of the passage isn’t to emphasize groupthink’s occurrence in diplomacy and military affairs. Groupthink might occur in any group in which there is high cohesiveness. Diplomacy and military affairs are simply two examples where it might occur, but we have no reason to think it isn’t just as likely to occur in other contexts.
The author never suggests that low cohesion can be desirable due to the risk of cohesion. P1 describes the negative effects of low cohesion, and the author never suggests those effects are preferable to the effects of groupthink.
The author notes at the end that research is important for identifying other factors that determine whether high cohesion will produce groupthink. However, a comment about future research is too narrow to be the main point. The author’s discussion of groupthink is much broader. It encompasses the idea that high cohesion creates the conditions for groupthink, which (E) doesn’t express.
Difficulty
90% of people who answer get this correct
This is a slightly challenging question.
It is significantly easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%131
141
75%151
Analysis
Main point
Problem-analysis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
90%
163
b
4%
155
c
1%
154
d
2%
155
e
3%
158
Question history
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