The Weekly Reflektion 42/2025

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that happens when people in a group prioritize harmony and agreement over critical thinking and realistic evaluation of alternatives. In groupthink, members tend to avoid conflict, suppress dissenting opinions, and conform to what they believe is the group consensus—even if it leads to poor decisions. Sometimes the group will support one of the members views even though they do not agree. The desire to maintain unity and avoid disagreement can override the group’s ability to make rational or well-considered choices.

Do your people tell you what they really think?

In the film ‘Notting Hill’, William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant), meets and falls in love with actress Anna Scott (played by Julie Roberts). Following a whirlwind romance and various challenges related to Anna’s fame and stardom, William turns down Anne in his bookshop in Notting Hill. He emphasizes that they are incompatible since they live in different worlds.

‘I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are, my mother has trouble remembering my name’.

Anna replies.

 ‘I’m also just a girl, standing before a boy asking him to love her’.

In the next scene, William tries to justify his decision to his friends. They are supportive, agreeing with his negative points about Anna, and adding some of their own ‘negative’ observations. Their supportive position is their way of helping William come to terms with his decision. Williams’ friends are also displaying a typical ‘group think’ behaviour. William’s flat mate Spike (played by Rhys Ifans) arrives on scene and apologizes for being late. The other friends tell Spike about William’s decision and explain the situation with an invitation to encourage Spike to add his support. Spike however immediately responds ‘You stupid prick’. The spell is broken and one by one the friends start to offer alternative views of Anna. William takes his head in his hands and realizes that he has made the wrong decision. There then follows a memorable car journey across London when William manages to reconcile with Anna at a press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London. The quintessential happy ending, yet only because someone disturbed the group think patterns and allowed people to say what they really thought.

Another example of group think is the ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion in Cuba in April 1961. Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs to start an action to depose Fidel Castro. The invasion was supported by the CIA, and their plan was that the exiles would mobilize the Cuban people to rise up and the US would then send in military support. The plan had been conceived during the Eisenhower Administration. In January 1961, John F. Kennedy succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower as president, and the plan was communicated to the Kennedy Administration. The CIA presented the plan as a fait accompli with a clear implication that failure to progress would be seen as a sign of weakness. Many of the people in the Kennedy Administration had reservations about the plan and the promise of US support but did not express these as they perceived Kennedy himself was supportive. When the invasion failed, Kennedy refused to send the promised US support and realized the folly of the plan. Kennedy’s experience led to changes in the way his Administration handled a major international crisis and how the effect of group think could be negated. Arguably this played a significant part in the way the Kennedy Administration handled the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. The president did not participate in the discussion within the team assigned to advise him and used other advisors, outside eyes to maintain an objective distance.