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95-436: UWP was born out of a split from Moral Re-Armament , a multifaith religious movement. In 1965, J. Blanton Belk dedicated his energies to creating an organization for young adults that enabled them to interact with the world through positivity and music. He created Up with People (UWP) to bring people together for the common good regardless of ideology, political affiliation, ethnicity, race, or religious affiliation. Up with People

190-655: A "closed" leadership style—an unwillingness to respect dissenting opinion. The same study indicates that level of group cohesiveness is insignificant in predicting groupthink occurrence. Park summarizes a study performed by Callaway, Marriott, and Esser (1985) in which groups with highly dominant members "made higher quality decisions, exhibited lowered state of anxiety, took more time to reach a decision, and made more statements of disagreement/agreement". Overall, groups with highly dominant members expressed characteristics inhibitory to groupthink. If highly dominant members are considered equivalent to leaders with high power motivation,

285-574: A "ineffective cult" with absolutes that were naïve, impossible to fulfill, and overly dependent on personal revelations. Actress Glenn Close , whose parents were part of the movement, publicly called the organization a cult. The group is also mentioned in Raymond Chandler 's book Farewell, My Lovely . A cop says to Philip Marlowe: "I think we gotta make this little world all over again. Now take Moral Rearmament. There you've got something. M. R. A. There you've got something, baby." In

380-567: A 2004 study, a diverse team of problem-solver outperformed a team consisting of best problem solvers as they start to think alike. Psychological safety, emphasized by Edmondson & Lei and Hirak et al., is crucial for effective group performance. It involves creating an environment that encourages learning and removes barriers perceived as threats by team members. Edmondson et al. demonstrated variations in psychological safety based on work type, hierarchy, and leadership effectiveness, highlighting its importance in employee development and fostering

475-462: A Buddhist abbot, a Canadian industrialist, and many others who found a new approach through MRA. The English edition, published by Longman, was titled Fresh Hope for the World . MRA began holding conferences on Mackinac Island , Michigan, in 1942, first at The Island House, rehabilitating it and much of the nearby grounds. They then purchased the abandoned Mission House hotel and adjacent property on

570-478: A God-controlled democracy, or perhaps I should say a theocracy, and they could be solved through a God-controlled Fascist dictatorship." When the war concluded, the MRA continued their mission on anti-communism and fighting the moral evils in conjunction with their theological beliefs. In 1946, 50 Swiss families active in the work of MRA bought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux, Switzerland . This became

665-566: A Karl Marx in every Jew." He continued, "But think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to God. Or Mussolini. Or any dictator. Through such a man God could control a nation overnight and solve every last, bewildering problem." The quote caused the MRA to have problems recruiting members. Buchman also supported a theocratic fascist state to defeat communism , "Spain has taught us what godless Communism will bring. Human problems aren’t economic. They’re moral, and they can’t be solved by immoral measures. They could be solved within

760-560: A back-up plan. Irving Janis identified three antecedent conditions to groupthink: 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 with all group norms ; but whether or not groupthink arises

855-731: A centre of European reconciliation, attended by thousands in the following years, including German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman . Buchman was awarded the Croix de Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French Government, and also the German Grand Cross of the Order of Merit . The historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson described the work as an "important contribution to one of

950-401: A consensus quickly and at a low energy cost; however, over time this process of decision-making may decrease the members' ability to think critically. It is, therefore, considered by many to be important to combat the effects of groupthink. According to Janis, decision-making groups are not necessarily destined to groupthink. He devised ways of preventing groupthink: The devil's advocate in

1045-515: A culture of learning within organizations. A similar term to groupthink is the Abilene paradox , another phenomenon that is detrimental when working in groups. When organizations fall into the Abilene paradox, they take actions in contradiction to what their perceived goals may be and therefore defeat the very purposes they are trying to achieve. Failure to communicate desires or beliefs can cause

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1140-400: A filmmaker, Storey felt compelled to make the film when she discovered her husband was keeping a secret from her: he was a former UWP member. The film contains never-before-seen archival footage, and the honest reflections of former members. The filmmakers describe it as "what can happen when ideology, money and groupthink converge to co-opt youthful idealism." [1] The documentary asserts that

1235-400: A group may provide questions and insight which contradict the majority group in order to avoid groupthink decisions. A study by Ryan Hartwig confirms that the devil's advocacy technique is very useful for group problem-solving. It allows for conflict to be used in a way that is most-effective for finding the best solution so that members will not have to go back and find a different solution if

1330-430: A host of plays and musicals. The theatre was successfully, but the plays were bias to the MRA's societal beliefs which struggled to stay relevant through the decades. In France, the well-known existentialist Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel edited a book, Un Changement d'Espérance à la Rencontre du Réarmament Moral , which brings together the stories of a French socialist leader, a Brazilian docker, an African chief,

1425-508: A live lesson, and the possible mention by president Ronald Reagan in the State of the Union address, were opportunities NASA deemed critical to increasing interest in its potential civilian space flight program. The schedule NASA set out to meet was, however, self-imposed. It seemed incredible to many that an organization with a perceived history of successful management would have locked itself into

1520-495: A million copies. In 1940, the novelist Daphne du Maurier published Come Wind, Come Weather , stories of ordinary Britons who had found hope and new life through MRA. She dedicated it to "Frank Buchman, whose initial vision made possible the world of the living characters in these stories." The book sold 650,000 copies in Britain alone. When World War II started, many of those active in the campaign for Moral Re-Armament joined

1615-570: A musical that satirizes the Latter-Day Saint movement cited Up with People as an inspiration for the cartoonishly joyous style of several of the songs in their musical performance, which sends up the clean-cut image of Mormon culture . In the musical Ride the Cyclone , the character Ocean Rosenberg discovers an Up with People record in her left-of-center humanist parents' record collection at age 8 and starts her on her journey to become

1710-413: A perennial failing of mankind. What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity – an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well. Groupthink was Whyte's diagnosis of the malaise affecting both the study and practice of management (and, by association, America) in the 1950s. Whyte was dismayed that employees had subjugated themselves to

1805-443: A problem. There was a recognized downside to group problem solving in that it takes groups more time to come to a decision and requires that people make compromises with each other. However, it was not until the research of Janis appeared that anyone really considered that a highly cohesive group could impair the group's ability to generate quality decisions. Tight-knit groups may appear to make decisions better because they can come to

1900-460: A schedule it had no chance of meeting. In the corporate world, ineffective and suboptimal group decision-making can negatively affect the health of a company and cause a considerable amount of monetary loss. Aaron Hermann and Hussain Rammal illustrate the detrimental role of groupthink in the collapse of Swissair , a Swiss airline company that was thought to be so financially stable that it earned

1995-513: A strong hold on political decisions and military operations, which may result in enormous wastage of human and material resources. Highly qualified and experienced politicians and military commanders sometimes make very poor decisions when in a suboptimal group setting. Scholars such as Janis and Raven attribute political and military fiascoes, such as the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the Vietnam War , and

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2090-643: A tenured Project leader can also create conditions for groupthink to prevail. Presence of an ‘experienced’ project manager can reduce the likelihood of groupthink by taking steps like critically analysing ideas, promoting open communication, encouraging diverse perspectives, and raising team awareness of groupthink symptoms. It was found that among people who have Bicultural identity, those with highly integrated Bicultural identity as opposed to less integrated were more prone to groupthink. In another 2022 study in Tanzania, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions come into play. It

2185-746: Is also a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The alumni body is composed of over 20,000 members from over 100 countries. Common Beat is an organization started in Japan by South Korean Han Chu Son. Chu Son traveled as a student in Up with People, took the UWP show ‘A Common Beat’ to Japan, translated it, and performed it there. By the 1990s, Up With People's themed, musical-style spectacles were frequently lambasted by critics and mocked by television writers for being dated and seeming phony, if not outright creepy. One critic opined, "Up With People didn't lose its way because it lost

2280-453: 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. A 2018 study found that absence of

2375-468: Is difficult to conduct, groupthink has many independent and dependent variables, and it is unclear "how to translate [groupthink's] theoretical concepts into observable and quantitative constructs". Nevertheless, outside research psychology and sociology, wider culture has come to detect groupthink in observable situations, for example: To make groupthink testable, Irving Janis devised eight symptoms indicative of groupthink: Type I: Overestimations of

2470-769: Is expected to pursue an alternative strategy or goal "for real". Testing groupthink in a laboratory is difficult because synthetic settings remove groups from real social situations, which ultimately changes the variables conducive or inhibitive to groupthink. Because of its subjective nature, researchers have struggled to measure groupthink as a complete phenomenon, instead frequently opting to measure its particular factors. These factors range from causal to effectual and focus on group and situational aspects. Park (1990) found that "only 16 empirical studies have been published on groupthink", and concluded that they "resulted in only partial support of his [Janis's] hypotheses". Park concludes, "despite Janis' claim that group cohesiveness

2565-419: Is for you Christians and for all nations." In 1960, Archbishop Makarios and Dr Kucuk , President and vice-president of Cyprus , jointly sent the first flag of independent Cyprus to Frank Buchman at Caux in recognition of MRA's help. In 2001, the MRA movement changed its name to Initiatives of Change (IofC). Buchman and the MRA faced criticism for his views on Hitler, Naziism, and fascism. In 1951,

2660-470: Is functioning nominally. Morton Thiokol engineers who designed and built the Challenger ' s rocket boosters ignored warnings that cooler temperature during the day of the launch could result in failure and death of the crew. The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster grounded space shuttle flights for nearly three years. Ironic that this particular flight was to be a demonstration showing confidence in

2755-496: Is fundamentally a moral one," he said. "The nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery. Moral recovery creates not crisis but confidence and unity in every phase of life." The phrase caught the mood of the time, and many public figures in Britain spoke and wrote in support. British tennis star H. W. Austin edited the book Moral Rearmament (The Battle for Peace) , which sold half

2850-555: Is often measured by number of ideas/solutions generated within a group, but there is no uniform, concrete standard by which researchers can objectively conclude groupthink occurs. The studies of groupthink and groupthink antecedents reveal a mixed body of results. Some studies indicate group cohesion and leadership style to be powerfully predictive of groupthink, while other studies indicate the insignificance of these factors. Group homogeneity and group insulation are generally supported as factors predictive of groupthink. Groupthink can have

2945-530: Is quoted as saying "For me, the gap year was a big year of growing up, and I changed profoundly." Frank Gatson Jr. traveled with Up with People, and he is known for being the creative director for En Vogue , Brandy, Rihanna , Jennifer Lopez , and Beyoncé . He has also choreographed videos, routines and live performances for artists including Michael Jackson , TLC , Kelly Rowland , Fifth Harmony , Destiny's Child, Toni Braxton , and Usher . Singer-songwriter Steve Poltz toured with Up with People as part of

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3040-478: Is sometimes stated to occur (more broadly) within natural groups within the community, for example to explain the lifelong different mindsets of those with differing political views (such as " conservatism " and " liberalism " in the U.S. political context or the purported benefits of team work vs. work conducted in solitude). However, this conformity of viewpoints within a group does not mainly involve deliberate group decision-making , and might be better explained by

3135-526: Is the major necessary antecedent factor, no research has shown a significant main effect of cohesiveness on groupthink." Park also concludes that research does not support Janis' claim that cohesion and leadership style interact to produce groupthink symptoms. Park presents a summary of the results of the studies analyzed. According to Park, a study by Huseman and Drive (1979) indicates groupthink occurs in both small and large decision-making groups within businesses. This results partly from group isolation within

3230-499: Is this: "The more amiability and esprit de corps there is among the members of a policy-making ingroup, the greater the danger that independent critical thinking will be replaced by groupthink, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against outgroups". Janis set the foundation for the study of groupthink starting with his research in the American Soldier Project where he studied

3325-929: The 1982 World's Fair , XX , the Jerash Festival , the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade , U.S. President George H.W. Bush ’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., and Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall . UWP toured throughout the 1990s, performing at events at the Washington Monument , the Freedom Festival in Philadelphia, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development's Earth Summit , and

3420-551: The Catholic Church ordered its members not to join the MRA because it supported the heresy of illuminism. The organization was criticized by Radio Moscow Overseas Service for its anticommunist ideals, in November 1952 saying, "Moral Re-Armament supplants the inevitable class war by the 'permanent struggle between good and evil'," and "has the power to attract radical revolutionary minds." The MRA has been described as

3515-476: The Cuban Missile Crisis using "vigilant appraisal". During meetings, he invited outside experts to share their viewpoints, and allowed group members to question them carefully. He also encouraged group members to discuss possible solutions with trusted members within their separate departments, and he even divided the group up into various sub-groups, to partially break the group cohesion. Kennedy

3610-765: The Hartford Seminary Foundation to pursue a ministry focused on individual spiritual transformation and global evangelism. His tenets focused on the ' Four Absolutes ' which were absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. This approach emphasized divine guidance, adherence to moral principles, and personal interaction as catalysts for change. Buchman relocated his activities to Princeton University , where student discussions he organized included public confessions of sexual activities. The discussions generated controversy, resulting in university president John Hibben banning Buchman from campus. He subsequently gained support at

3705-674: The Soviet Union in 1941, the Watergate scandal and others. Despite the popularity of the concept of groupthink, fewer than two dozen studies addressed the phenomenon itself following the publication of Victims of Groupthink , between the years 1972 and 1998. This was surprising considering how many fields of interests it spans, which include political science , communications, organizational studies , social psychology , management, strategy, counseling, and marketing. One can most likely explain this lack of follow-up in that group research

3800-568: The Super Bowl ; the group performed in five Super Bowl halftime shows between 1976 and 1986. Only the Grambling State University Marching Band has performed more Super Bowl halftime shows, with a total of six appearances. Up with People has an alumni group/professional networking organization that goes by the name: the Up with People International Alumni Association (UWPIAA). It was formed in 1988 and

3895-576: The University of Oxford in England, where the movement became known as the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group held increasingly popular conferences across multiple countries, attracting thousands of participants. These gatherings served as platforms to disseminate the group's philosophy. The Oxford Groupers or Buchmanites were rebranded in 1938 when Buchman launched Moral Re-Armament. "The crisis

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3990-518: The Watergate scandal , to the effect of groupthink. More recently, Dina Badie argued that groupthink was largely responsible for the shift in the U.S. administration's view on Saddam Hussein that eventually led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States. After the September 11 attacks , "stress, promotional leadership, and intergroup conflict " were all factors that gave rise to

4085-522: The 122nd Tournament of Roses Parade; and the 100th Anniversary of Kiwanis International in Indianapolis, Indiana. Former director Vernon C. Grigg III was hired as the president and CEO after the retirement of Dale Penny. Grigg was succeeded by Seema Srivastava as CEO in 2022. The UWP Archives is housed at the University of Arizona Special Collections library. The archives include materials from

4180-510: The Abilene paradox. The Watergate scandal is an example of this. Before the scandal had occurred, a meeting took place where they discussed the issue. One of Nixon's campaign aides was unsure if he should speak up and give his input. If he had voiced his disagreement with the group's decision, it is possible that the scandal could have been avoided. After the Bay of Pigs invasion fiasco, President John F. Kennedy sought to avoid groupthink during

4275-562: The African and Asian countries, which were then moving towards independence from colonial rule. Leaders of these independence struggles have paid tribute to MRA for helping to bring about unity between groups in conflict, and for helping to ease the transition to independence. In 1956, King Mohammed V of Morocco sent a message to Buchman: "I thank you for all you have done for Morocco in the course of these last testing years. Moral Re-Armament must become for us Muslims as much an incentive as it

4370-556: The Allied forces. MRA did try unsuccessfully to obtain exemptions from military service for its members. When MRA was established in the United States in 1941, it was considered by some to be an effective way to combat communism. Senator (later President) Harry Truman , Chair of the Senate's Truman Committee investigating war contracts, told a Washington press conference in 1943: "Suspicions, rivalries, apathy, greed lie behind most of

4465-678: The Cubans by failing to question the CIA about its many false assumptions, including the ineffectiveness of Castro's air force , the weakness of Castro's army , and the inability of Castro to quell internal uprisings. Janis argued the fiasco that ensued could have been prevented if the Kennedy administration had followed the methods to preventing groupthink adopted during the Cuban Missile Crisis , which took place just one year later in October 1962. In

4560-671: The Hurricane , and Decision at Midnight . In 1966, MRA deeded much of the property on the island to Mackinac College . The property later became Mission Point Resort , a summer resort hotel. In the 1950s and 1960s, MRA's work expanded across the globe. Buchman was a pioneer in multi-faith initiatives. As he said, "MRA is the good road of an ideology inspired by God upon which all can unite. Catholic , Jew and Protestant , Hindu , Muslim , Buddhist and Confucianist – all find they can change, where needed, and they can travel along this good road together." These ideas appealed to many in

4655-505: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as his two prime case studies. Later studies have evaluated and reformulated his groupthink model. Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the " ingroup " produces an "illusion of invulnerability" (an inflated certainty that

4750-572: The Up with People organization, the International Alumni Association, as well as the personal papers of the UWP Founder and Chairman Emeritus J. Blanton Belk and his wife Elizabeth "Betty" Belk. Select materials from the UWP archives are accessible on the Up with People digital collection hosted on the University of Arizona Special Collections website. In the 1970s, Up with People began to make frequent appearances at

4845-471: The ability to control its cast members' behavior, or because the public suddenly came to recognize that its sickly sweet songs were insufferable." Its songs were criticized as naive and childlike, with titles like "You Can't Live Crooked And Think Straight" and "To Tell The Truth." Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story (2009) is a documentary made by the wife of a former Up With People member, Lee Storey. A water rights attorney who never had training as

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4940-459: The band when he was 18; the song "Up With People" is on his 2022 album Stardust and Satellites . Moral Re-Armament Moral Re-Armament ( MRA ) was an international moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from American minister Frank Buchman 's Oxford Group . Buchman headed MRA for 23 years until his death in 1961. In 2001, the movement was renamed Initiatives of Change . In 1922, Frank Buchman left his teaching position at

5035-413: The board members lacking expertise in the field and having somewhat similar background, norms, and values, the pressure to conform may have become more prominent. This phenomenon is called group homogeneity, which is an antecedent to groupthink. Together, these conditions may have contributed to the poor decision-making process that eventually led to Swissair's collapse. Another example of groupthink from

5130-489: The bottlenecks. This is where the Moral Re-Armament group comes in. Where others have stood back and criticized, they have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work." Truman supported the work of the MRA throughout the war, with his longtime aid, John R. Steelman, stating the MRA "as the greatest single force in the nation for reconciliation." Truman supported the MRA produced play "The Forgotten Factor" saying it

5225-426: The business. Manz and Sims (1982) conducted a study showing that autonomous work groups are susceptible to groupthink symptoms in the same manner as decisions making groups within businesses. Fodor and Smith (1982) produced a study revealing that group leaders with high power motivation create atmospheres more susceptible to groupthink. Leaders with high power motivation possess characteristics similar to leaders with

5320-421: The collective confirmation bias of the individual members of the group. The term was coined in 1952 by William H. Whyte Jr. Most of the initial research on groupthink was conducted by Irving Janis , a research psychologist from Yale University . Janis published an influential book in 1972, which was revised in 1982. Janis used the Bay of Pigs disaster (the failed invasion of Castro's Cuba in 1961) and

5415-495: The corporate world is illustrated in the United Kingdom -based companies Marks & Spencer and British Airways . The negative impact of groupthink took place during the 1990s as both companies released globalization expansion strategies. Researcher Jack Eaton's content analysis of media press releases revealed that all eight symptoms of groupthink were present during this period. The most predominant symptom of groupthink

5510-411: The cost of most private universities, a problem compounded by the mostly indifferent response to the group's public performance. UWP suspended touring operations from 2000 until 2004. The program was rebranded with a more academic focus on the benefits of travel, volunteer service, performing arts, and leadership development with the sub-brand Worldsmart Leadership Program . Two years after its relaunch,

5605-472: The decisions occurred largely because of groupthink, which prevented contradictory views from being expressed and subsequently evaluated. After the publication of Janis' book Victims of Groupthink in 1972, and a revised edition with the title Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes in 1982, the concept of groupthink was used to explain many other faulty decisions in history. These events included Nazi Germany 's decision to invade

5700-505: The desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs. This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation . Groupthink is a construct of social psychology but has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields of communication studies , political science , management , and organizational theory , as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behaviour. Groupthink

5795-597: The effect of extreme stress on group cohesiveness. After this study he remained interested in the ways in which people make decisions under external threats. This interest led Janis to study a number of "disasters" in American foreign policy , such as failure to anticipate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1941); the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco (1961); and the prosecution of the Vietnam War (1964–67) by President Lyndon Johnson . He concluded that in each of these cases,

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5890-510: The film, even though she derived no profit from it. Storey won the case, with the Tax Court ruling production of the film was a deductible trade or business expense. Music critics cite Up with People as a stylistic influence for R.E.M's tongue-in-cheek " Shiny Happy People " and the corresponding music video due to its over-the-top and colorful musical spectacle. In two episodes of The Simpsons , Bart vs. Thanksgiving and Selma's Choice ,

5985-558: The first Celebration of Peace event with Colin Powell in Denver, Colorado. Companies like Exxon, Halliburton, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, General Electric, Coors, Toyota, Enron and Searle donated tens of millions of dollars to the organization. When that support started to fade, it began to charge tuition to members—up to $ 5,300 in 1982. By the 1990s, the organization found itself struggling to recruit youth capable of paying tuition rates that exceeded

6080-598: The first one fails. Hartwig also suggests that the devil's advocacy technique be incorporated with other group decision-making models such as the functional theory to find and evaluate alternative solutions. The main idea of the devil's advocacy technique is that somewhat structured conflict can be facilitated to not only reduce groupthink, but to also solve problems. Diversity of all kinds is also instrumental in preventing groupthink. Individuals with varying backgrounds, thought, professional & life experiences etc. can offer unique perspectives & challenge assumptions. In

6175-530: The greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945." In Britain, hundreds donated money for the purchase of the Westminster Theatre in London, as a living memorial to the men and women of Moral Re-Armament who had died in war service. Many servicemen gave their gratuities. For the next 50 years, the theatre presented

6270-447: The group were found to predict groupthink while situational conditions did not. The structural conditions included group insulation, group homogeneity, and promotional leadership. The situational conditions included group cohesion. These findings refute Janis' claim about group cohesiveness predicting groupthink. Overall, studies on groupthink have largely focused on the factors (antecedents) that predict groupthink. Groupthink occurrence

6365-529: The group — its power and morality Type II: Closed-mindedness Type III: Pressures toward uniformity When a group exhibits most of the symptoms of groupthink, the consequences of a failing decision process can be expected: incomplete analysis of the other options, incomplete analysis of the objectives, failure to examine the risks associated with the favored choice, failure to reevaluate the options initially rejected, poor information research, selection bias in available information processing, failure to prepare for

6460-429: The groupthink phenomenon seems to rest on a set of unstated and generally restrictive assumptions: It has been thought that groups with the strong ability to work together will be able to solve dilemmas in a quicker and more efficient fashion than an individual. Groups have a greater amount of resources which lead them to be able to store and retrieve information more readily and come up with more alternative solutions to

6555-400: The individuals favored before the discussion, he recommends creating heterogeneous groups which contain people with different points of view. Sunstein also points out that people arguing a side they do not sincerely believe (in the role of devil's advocate) tend to be much less effective than a sincere argument. This can be accomplished by dissenting individuals, or a group like a Red Team that

6650-486: The island's east end. The lease was temproarily blocked by the Michigan Attorney General office causing greater scrutiny on the organization before the deal was eventually passed. Between 1954 and 1960, they constructed an extensive training center there, including a theatre and a soundstage. The soundstage was used for the production of motion pictures, including The Crowning Experience , Voice of

6745-562: The latter crisis, essentially the same political leaders were involved in decision-making, but this time they learned from their previous mistake of seriously under-rating their opponents. The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, is a prime example of groupthink. A number of factors such as shared illusions and rationalizations contributed to the lack of precaution taken by U.S. Navy officers based in Hawaii. The United States had intercepted Japanese messages and they discovered that Japan

6840-453: The likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process. William H. Whyte Jr. derived the term from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four , and popularized it in 1952 in Fortune magazine: Groupthink being a coinage – and, admittedly, a loaded one – a working definition is in order. We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity – it is, after all,

6935-687: The most successful girl in town. Elizabeth Birch (born September 2, 1956), attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992-1994 and served as the executive director of the Human Rights Campaign , the nation's largest LGBT organization, from January 1995 until January 2004, travelled one year with UWP in her high school years. NBC News correspondent Tom Costello of The Today Show , NBC Nightly News , MSNBC , and CNBC traveled with Up with People. He

7030-431: The music video for Smile Empty Soul's 2003 single "Bottom of The Bottle," lead singer Sean Danielsen is seen wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "And God said unto thee, MRA." Groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or

7125-420: The newspeak vocabulary George Orwell used in his dismaying world of 1984 . In that context, groupthink takes on an invidious connotation. Exactly such a connotation is intended, since the term refers to a deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgments as a result of group pressures. He went on to write: The main principle of groupthink, which I offer in the spirit of Parkinson's Law ,

7220-408: The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. He initially defined groupthink as follows: I use the term groupthink as a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive ingroup that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. Groupthink is a term of the same order as the words in

7315-566: The occurrence of groupthink. Political case studies of groupthink serve to illustrate the impact that the occurrence of groupthink can have in today's political scene. The United States Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961 was the primary case study that Janis used to formulate his theory of groupthink. The invasion plan was initiated by the Eisenhower administration, but when the Kennedy administration took over, it "uncritically accepted"

7410-484: The organization, founded on conservative American ideals, was funded by corporate America and was deliberate propaganda to counteract the liberal counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Former members talk about their experiences in UWP, which ranged from positive to more cult-like regimented rules. The documentary spawned a lawsuit against the IRS, in which filmmaker Lee Storey asserted the right to deduct her expenses in making

7505-691: The past is selecting teams from more diverse backgrounds, and even mixing men and women for groups (Kamalnath). Groupthink can be considered by many to be a detriment to companies, organizations and in any work situations. Most positions that are senior level need individuals to be independent in their thinking. There is a positive correlation found between outstanding executives and decisiveness (Kelman). Groupthink also prohibits an organization from moving forward and innovating if no one ever speaks up and says something could be done differently. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness , faulty group structure, and situational context (e.g., community panic) play into

7600-510: The plan of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). When some people, such as Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Senator J. William Fulbright , attempted to present their objections to the plan, the Kennedy team as a whole ignored these objections and kept believing in the morality of their plan. Eventually Schlesinger minimized his own doubts, performing self-censorship . The Kennedy team stereotyped Fidel Castro and

7695-500: The rest of the group. Group interactions tend to favor clear and harmonious agreements and it can be a cause for concern when little to no new innovations or arguments for better policies, outcomes and structures are called to question. (McLeod). Groupthink can often be referred to as a group of "yes men" because group activities and group projects in general make it extremely easy to pass on not offering constructive opinions. Some methods that have been used to counteract group think in

7790-439: The results of Callaway, Marriott, and Esser contradict the results of Fodor and Smith. A study by Leana (1985) indicates the interaction between level of group cohesion and leadership style is completely insignificant in predicting groupthink. This finding refutes Janis' claim that the factors of cohesion and leadership style interact to produce groupthink. Park summarizes a study by McCauley (1989) in which structural conditions of

7885-441: The right decision has been made). Thus the "ingroup" significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the " outgroup "). Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the "outgroup". Members of a group can often feel under peer pressure to "go along with the crowd" for fear of "rocking the boat" or of how their speaking out will be perceived by

7980-490: The safety of the space shuttle technology. The Challenger case was subject to a more quantitatively oriented test of Janis's groupthink model performed by Esser and Lindoerfer, who found clear signs of positive antecedents to groupthink in the critical decisions concerning the launch of the shuttle . The day of the launch was rushed for publicity reasons. NASA wanted to captivate and hold the attention of America. Having civilian teacher Christa McAuliffe on board to broadcast

8075-513: The show parodied the group as "Hooray for Everything, "a group of "clean-cut young go-getters," that performs ridiculous songs such as a cover of " Get Dancin " dedicated as a "salute to the Western hemisphere, the dancingest hemisphere of all." The TV show Cheers had a character, Loretta, who sang with the fictional group "The Grinning Americans" (a favorite group of another character, Cliff, and his mother). The creators of The Book of Mormon ,

8170-689: The sub-brand was discontinued. Notable touring appearances during the 2000s were the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade , the United Nations Culture of Peace Forum at the UN Headquarters , the 400th Anniversary of Bermuda, and the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. Notable performances during the 2010s were performing for Queen Silvia of Sweden at the Mentor Foundation Gala, Washington, DC;

8265-399: The title the "Flying Bank". The authors argue that, among other factors, Swissair carried two symptoms of groupthink: the belief that the group is invulnerable and the belief in the morality of the group. In addition, before the fiasco, the size of the company board was reduced, subsequently eliminating industrial expertise. This may have further increased the likelihood of groupthink. With

8360-400: The tyranny of groups, which crushed individuality and were instinctively hostile to anything or anyone that challenged the collective view. American psychologist Irving Janis (Yale University) pioneered the initial research on the groupthink theory. He does not cite Whyte, but coined the term again by analogy with " doublethink " and similar terms that were part of the newspeak vocabulary in

8455-509: Was "the most important play produced by the war." Buchman and the MRA faced criticism for Buchman's pro- Nazism and Anti-semitic statement, "I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front-line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism. My barber in London told me Hitler saved all Europe from Communism. That’s how he felt. Of course, I don’t condone everything the Nazis do. Anti-Semitism? Bad, naturally. I suppose Hitler sees

8550-600: Was arming itself for an offensive attack somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Washington took action by warning officers stationed at Pearl Harbor , but their warning was not taken seriously. They assumed that the Empire of Japan was taking measures in the event that their embassies and consulates in enemy territories were usurped. The U.S. Navy and Army in Pearl Harbor also shared rationalizations about why an attack

8645-691: Was deliberately absent from the meetings, so as to avoid pressing his own opinion. Cass Sunstein reports that introverts can sometimes be silent in meetings with extroverts ; he recommends explicitly asking for each person's opinion, either during the meeting or afterwards in one-on-one sessions. Sunstein points to studies showing groups with a high level of internal socialization and happy talk are more prone to bad investment decisions due to groupthink, compared with groups of investors who are relative strangers and more willing to be argumentative. To avoid group polarization , where discussion with like-minded people drives an outcome further to an extreme than any of

8740-406: Was observed that in high power distance societies, individuals are hesitant to voice dissent, deferring to leaders' preferences in making decisions. Furthermore, as Tanzania is a collectivist society, community interests supersede those of individuals. The combination of high power distance & collectivism creates optimal conditions for groupthink to occur. As observed by Aldag and Fuller (1993),

8835-731: Was officially incorporated as a " 501(c)(3)   nonprofit, apolitical, non-sectarian international educational organization" in 1968 under the leadership of Belk. UWP traveled and performed their musical show across several countries. Notable events were performances at the Indianapolis 500 , the Cotton Bowl , the White House , Super Bowl X , and the People's Republic of China . In the 1980s UWP continued their musical tour, performing at Super Bowls XIV and XVI . They performed at

8930-546: Was the illusion of invulnerability as both companies underestimated potential failure due to years of profitability and success during challenging markets. Up until the consequence of groupthink erupted they were considered blue chips and darlings of the London Stock Exchange . During 1998–1999 the price of Marks & Spencer shares fell from 590 to less than 300 and that of British Airways from 740 to 300. Both companies had previously been prominently featured in

9025-432: Was unlikely. Some of them included: On January 28, 1986, NASA launched the space shuttle Challenger . This was significant because a civilian, non-astronaut, high school teacher was to be the first American civilian in space. The space shuttle was perceived to be so safe as to make this possible. NASA's engineering and launch teams rely on teamwork. To launch the shuttle, individual team members must affirm each system

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