9/11: A Groupthink Action

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Irving Janis spoke and defined groupthink as, cohesive groups of people making and justifying faulty decisions. Groupthink is when a group of people come together and think as a whole. The downfall with groupthink is that the group will commonly make irrational decisions or overestimate their positions. I feel that 9/11 attack was a groupthink action. 9/11 came as a shock to the U.S and had given a terrible blow to this country. After the terrorist had destroyed the twin towers, damaged the pentagon, and caused a plane to crash into an open field that killed hundreds. It sent the president at that time and the republicans to aim for war. With this brash decision and premature planning; it caused a full fledge war that destroyed many. Due to …show more content…
During this stage, “order must be established for the group to function and progress” (Kirst-Ashman, Karen K., 2014, p. 122) and “the group establishes some consensus regarding a role structure and group norms for appropriate behavior” (Kirst-Ashman, Karen K., 2014, p. 122). Due to the necessities of group cohesion and establishing of group norms, this author believes that it would be the opportune time for groupthink to emerge as the group is busy establishing relative consensus already.
Groupthink could be a barrier because it causes people not to be able to share their opinion and creative thought that could lead in bad decision-making of the group and it can effectively about the group as well as their grade.
Task groups also known as work groups is most likely to result in groupthink because it has to do with group dynamics and people working together to “solve problems, develop innovative ideas, formulate plans, and achieve goals” (Kirst-Ashman, 2011, p. 109). When dealing with different people with different ideas there is bound to be people who do not agree on certain things but instead of voicing their opinion they choose not to because they do not want to cause disagreement within the group, so they just keep their opinion to themselves and goes along with the group which result in