Groupthink is a sociopsychological phenomenon, a particular mindset and behaviors that occur among and within a group of people who are tasked with making decisions and whose desire for conformity affects what and how decisions are made. Groupthink can be prevalent when decision makers seek to minimize conflict, ignore or suppress alternative and dissenting viewpoints, and achieve concurrence at the expense of more rationally calculated decisions. Factors such as group cohesiveness, group structure, leadership, and situational context figure prominently into whether groupthink impacts the decision-making process.

By isolating themselves from external influences, group members aim to maintain loyalty to their group, and through conformity, they tend to skew their perceptions of themselves while discounting opposing views when they are deciding on a course of action.

The theory ...