Social Psychology at Pratt

Preventing Groupthink

This article discusses the phenomenon of Groupthink in terms of the two major events under President Kennedy. One event was the failure of the invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Yale psychologist Irving Janis looked at this events failings as a result of groupthink. The people in charge of making decisions were making the decisions because they were trying to pleasure the President. The group went into the situation knowing that Kennedy wanted to over throw Castro, so because of this they did not make decisions based on what was good for the situation but what would make the President happy. The other event was the The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Irving Janis asserts that Kennedy understood that his actions effected the decisions that were made at the Bay of Pigs. For decisions to be made on the Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy put together a team of people and the group had to make the decisions. He told her brother whom at the time was the Attorney General to play a devils advocate role at all times, in order for the group to come to the best decisions.