COMM 1 Lecture 14: Comm_1_Lecture_14
11 May 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Comparing small group decision making w/individual decision making. Small groups tend to make better decision than individuals. Exceptions: during leadership in times or crisis and emergency; when they fall victim to group think (over concern for harmony of the group) Will cause people to keep criticisms to themselves. Won"t bring up idea for fear of rocking the boat. This is dangerous with groups of elites (intellectuals) Ex: during bay of pigs incident pres. Kennedy"s cabinet was known to be the elites. They were making decision to invade cuba (was a disaster) After failure, cabinet knew it was a bad idea, but didn"t bring it up because of group think. To prevent this, structural things we can do to avoid group think: Anonymous voting, breaking group into subgroups, force people to play devil"s advocate (tell us what is wrong) Major reason: diffusion of responsibility (power in numbers) Calculated risks more likely done by small groups.
