Abstract
Groupthink is a powerful social phenomenon where the experienced momentum of a group takes it to extreme places. Social psychologists have documented the many ways in which group pressures can create conformity and how such “momentum” can result in remarkably poor decisions that fail to take other perspectives into account. Although many variables have been identified, social psychology is lacking a metatheoretical framework that can account for these kinds of human behaviors. This chapter reviews the processes associated with groupthink and then lays out how a new unified theory of psychology can account for the various justification and social influence dynamics that drive groupthink. By being aware of these processes and having an integrative model for understanding them, we will be in a better place to avoid unwise conformity that can have disastrous consequences.
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Henriques, G. (2020). Groupthink and the Evolution of Reason Giving. In: Allen, D.M., Howell, J.W. (eds) Groupthink in Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36822-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36822-7_2
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