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Groups do not always make better decisions than individuals, and two named phenomena explain some of the ways group decision-making goes wrong. Groupthink (Janis) is a pattern where a highly cohesive group's desire for agreement overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, so the group converges prematurely on a decision without weighing the risks. For example, imagine a close-knit clinical team so keen to maintain harmony that no one raises a serious concern about a risky plan, and the flawed plan proceeds unchallenged. Group polarisation is a related but distinct phenomenon, where discussion strengthens whatever view the group already leaned toward beforehand.

Groupthink is driven by features such as an illusionA misperception of a real external stimulus, such as mistaking a coat on a hook for a person.Read more → of invulnerability (an unwarranted shared sense the group cannot fail), an illusion of unanimity (assuming silence means agreement), and mindguards (members who actively shield the group from dissenting information). Group polarisation produces a risky shift, where a group's mild initial leaning toward risk becomes an even riskier collective decision after discussion, because discussion mostly reinforces the majority view. Picture a multidisciplinary team already slightly favouring early discharge: after discussion the team lands on an even earlier, riskier date than any individual member first proposed. Appointing a devil's advocate, someone deliberately tasked with raising counter-arguments, counters both groupthink and group polarisation by reintroducing the challenge that group cohesion suppressed.

• Which researcher introduced the concept of groupthink after analysing a series of flawed United States foreign policy decisions?
• A committee under groupthink conditions comes to believe it cannot fail and dismisses opponents as ignorant. Which pair of symptoms does this describe?
• One explanation of group polarisation holds that discussion exposes members to arguments they had not previously considered, all favouring one side. Which account is this?
• A team is described as showing a shift toward greater caution after group discussion, rather than toward greater risk. What does this demonstrate about group polarisation?

• Groupthink, cohesion overriding critical appraisal, unlike group polarisation, which is discussion amplifying an existing leaning.
• Illusion of unanimity, assuming silence means agreement, whereas mindguards actively block dissenting information from reaching the group.
• Risky shift, a group decision becoming riskier than any individual's starting view, rather than groupthink's premature, unchallenged consensus.
• Devil's advocate, a deliberate dissenting role, unlike passive disagreement, which cohesive groups often suppress before it is voiced.

• Those are different symptoms concerning suppression of doubt.
• Those mechanisms belong to bystander research instead.
• That researcher studied conformity in line-length judgements.
• That researcher studied obedience to instructions.
• That researcher studied norm formation and intergroup conflict.

• Name the learning, social or research principle being tested before reading the options.
• Identify the antecedent, behaviour, consequence or cognitive process in the vignette.
• Compare the direction of effect with the nearest competing principle.
• Apply the same rule to a new example to confirm that the answer transfers.