ABSTRACT
Groupthink is purported to be the cause of spectacular failures as the Bay of Pigs decision, the Watergate cover-up, and the space shuttle disasters. Groupthink is but one perspective that addresses social influence processes in groups. Other examples include choice shifts, group polarization, and group exacerbation of stereotypic judgment tendencies. This chapter presents the social identity maintenance model of groupthink and reviews the empirical evidence for the model. It examines the traditional groupthink model, also reviews the empirical research that the model stimulated, and discusses the responses that the equivocal empirical evidence for the model has produced. Experimental studies have attempted to manipulate multiple antecedent conditions of groupthink while assessing groupthink symptoms and group decision effectiveness. In general, these studies have found only limited evidence for groupthink symptoms and, with one exception, no evidence for decrements in group decision effectiveness in groupthink treatments.
