Well isn't this interesting...

[drewbear]

I've been working on the presentation for my business communications class, and was pleased to find out that I'm scheduled to give it Thursday. That gives me 2 more days to prep, thank the gods.

Anyway, my assigned topic is groupthink, a psychological phenomenon that happens when a group becomes more concerned with agreeing with itself than with trying to find the best decision. In the course of researching groupthink, I noticed some odd coincidences. Here are the 8 symptoms of groupthink, as well as quick examples of each:

1. The illusion of invulnerability: "It can't happen to us/I'll work out perfectly, because we're special!"
   
2. Belief in the inherent morality of the group: "We, and our beliefs, are more 'right' than you and your beliefs."
   
3. Collective rationalization: "Of course what we're doing is right; any evidence to the contrary is obviously faulty."
   
4. Negative stereotypes of non-group members: "You're not us, so you're not worth listening to."
   
5. High degree of self-censorship: keeping concerns and dissenting ideas to yourself
   
6. The illusion of unanimity: the false belief that everyone agrees 100% with the group's decisions and actions
   
7. Strong and direct to conform: the discouragement of dissenting or differing opions with the threat to "cut" the disloyal group member
   
8. Self-appointed mindguards: protecting the group, group leaders, or those the group reports to from negative or threatening information

Keep in mind that groupthink is widely credited as being a direct cause for the Challenger explosion, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the US complacency before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the failure of the Nixon government to prevent the Watergate scandal. Does anyone else see some evidence of groupthink in current events?