It happens all the time in small, closely-knit groups – cabinets, party executives, boards of directors, church congregations or club committees. It is called groupthink. It is when such groups become more and more certain that their collective judgment is infallible. Groupthink signals big trouble. The scholar Irving Janis blames it for most American foreign-policy fiascos in his book on that sad and currently very relevant subject.
The individuals within such groups, who may or may not be very bright, find themselves listening only to themselves. They find themselves stressing the absolute need for loyalty to their own consensus. Increasingly they begin to equate dissent with a kind of treason.
They live in an echo chamber of their own views. They do not think of the hard questions to ask and even if they do they soon get to the point when they would never think of actually asking them.
