Threat, cohesion, and group effectiveness: Testing a social identity maintenance perspective on groupthink
Turner, Pratkanis, Probasco and Leve report three experiments testing a social identity maintenance reading of groupthink. Their abstract says that Experiment 1 manipulated group cohesion and threat to members' self-esteem and produced poor decision quality, that Experiment 2 confirmed the cohesion manipulation worked, and that Experiment 3 replicated the poor decisions and supported the social identity maintenance perspective. Groups under groupthink conditions that were given an excuse for possible poor performance made significantly better decisions. The authors interpret groupthink as a collective effort to ward off negative views of the group.
Turner, Pratkanis, Probasco and Leve report three experiments testing a social identity maintenance reading of groupthink. Their abstract says that Experiment 1 manipulated group cohesion and threat to members' self-esteem and produced poor decision quality, that Experiment 2 confirmed the cohesion manipulation worked, and that Experiment 3 replicated the poor decisions and supported the social identity maintenance perspective. Groups under groupthink conditions that were given an excuse for possible poor performance made significantly better decisions. The authors interpret groupthink as a collective effort to ward off negative views of the group.
Written from the abstract, secondary host of the journal abstract, 2026-11-01.
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Turner, M. E., Pratkanis, A. R., Probasco, P., & Leve, C. (1992). Threat, cohesion, and group effectiveness: Testing a social identity maintenance perspective on groupthink. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(5), 781-796. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.5.781 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.5.781