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
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████
a
A study of ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████████
This doesn’t strengthen, because we have no evidence that the groups subject to groupthink were highly cohesive, or that the groups that didn’t have groupthink were not highly cohesive.
b
There is strong ████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████
Dissent can be a result of a highly cohesive group. It doesn’t tell us whether groupthink is more likely to occur in a highly cohesive group, however, because groupthink doesn’t involve dissent.
c
Extensive analyses of █████████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██████████
This strengthens by providing evidence that without the condition of high cohesion, groupthink doesn’t occur. When group members generally distrust each other, that signifies
d
There is substantial ████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ████████ █████ █████████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████████████
This suggests that groupthink might occur under conditions of low cohesion (since factions that oppose each other are evidence of low cohesion). This doesn’t support the author’s claim that high cohesion can produce groupthink.
e
Ample research demonstrates ████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████
This doesn’t support the author’s connection between high cohesion and groupthink, for several reasons. First, voluntary deference isn’t necessarily indicative of high cohesion over low cohesion. Remember, in a low cohesion group, group members might be deterred from