Generally, teamwork in groups leads to beneficial results. Rayan, working at an automobile company, suggested that extreme cohesion can interfere with effective leadership and can lead to disastrous decisions. This process is termed as “groupthink” in which a group allows its concerns for unanimity. They, in fact, “override the motivation to realistically appraise courses of action”. It results in the tendency of decision maker to make irrational decisions. Studies have shown that such a group has an exaggerated sense of its own power to control events and tends to ignore and minimise outside cues from real world in order to preserve their internal harmony and collective well-being.
How do we counteract and prevent groupthink?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → By seeking feedback from trusted others
Option (1) By encouraging cohesiveness — Incorrect. Groupthink is likely to occur in cohesive groups; the passage itself says extreme cohesion leads to disastrous decisions. More cohesion would feed groupthink, not check it.
Option (2) By seeking feedback from trusted others — Correct. The ways to counteract or prevent groupthink are rewarding critical thinking and even disagreement, asking groups to present alternative courses of action, inviting outside experts to evaluate decisions, and encouraging members to seek feedback from trusted others. Each brings in a view from outside the group’s agreement.
Option (3) By being isolated from outsiders — Incorrect. Groups isolated from outsiders are the ones in which groupthink is likely; prevention does the reverse and invites outside experts.
Option (4) By preserving group’s internal harmony — Incorrect. It is in order to preserve its internal harmony that such a group ignores cues from the real world and loses touch with reality; this is a sign of groupthink, not a cure.
Note: The passage of Q41-45 is NCERT’s box on groupthink, nearly word for word, with Irving Janis’s name replaced by ‘Rayan’. Rayan at the automobile company is Irving Janis in disguise; read the boxes, and you will spot him first.
NCERT: Psychology — Chapter 7: Social Influence and Group Processes, Box 7.1 (2025-26)
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