'Groupthink always has negative consequences.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of research you have studied to support your answer.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Feb/Mar 2018). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. Marks: use generic levels of response in table C.
2. Syllabus: Decision-making: groupthink (Janis, 1971) and strategies to avoid groupthink.
3. Most likely (any other appropriate responses should be credited):
4. Positive: Janis: 'There is evidence that as the members of a group feel more accepted by the others, increased group cohesiveness, they display less overt conformity to group norms. Thus the more cohesive a group becomes, the less the members will feel constrained to censor what they say.'
5. Negative: Janis 'the groupthink type of conformity tends to increase as group cohesiveness increases. Groupthink involves nondeliberate suppression of critical thoughts as a result of internalisation of the group's norms, which is quite different. The more cohesive the group, the greater the inner compulsion on the part of each member to avoid creating disunity, which inclines him to believe in the soundness of whatever proposals are promoted by the leader or by a majority of the group's members.'
6. 'In a cohesive group, the danger is not so much that each individual will fail to reveal his objections to what the others propose but that he will think the proposal is a good one, without attempting to carry out a careful, critical scrutiny of the pros and cons of the alternatives.'
7. 'When groupthink becomes dominant, there also is considerable suppression of deviant thoughts, but it takes the form of each person's deciding that his misgivings are not relevant and should be set aside, that the benefit of the doubt regarding any lingering uncertainties should be given to the group consensus.'