The role of the Titanic played a huge part in the cohesion for groupthink. In particular, the group members of the ship such as the captains, crewmembers, passengers aboard and even the public eye believed and trusted in the solidarity of the Titanic’s dominance. However the common interest of the Titanic being invincible allowed for groupthink to form. According to De Dreu and Van de Vilert (1997), group member’s goals are changed from the pursuit of real problem resolution, as they are vulnerable to groupthink occurring. Generally, the group members of the Titanic were involved in group norms and patterns that took over their motivation in realistic courses of action. In detail, failure to establish clear decision-making procedures, self-appointed …show more content…
In particular, the captains of the Titanic did not provide enough life vests and lifeboats for the number of passengers aboard. “Don’t you understand? The water is freezing and there aren’t enough boats…not enough by half. Half the people on this ship are going to die” (Titanic, 1997). In this scene, Rose realizes that the Titanic is not equipped to ensure the safety of the passengers aboard. The explanation for this is the captains’ illusion of invulnerability. Instead of developing action plans and alternatives in preparation for future possibilities or difficulties, the captains were deeply involved with the Titanic being unsinkable. This caused the captains to lose touch with the reality of being on a massive ship. According to De Dreu and Van de Vilert (1997), clear decision procedures are essential, the groups are can actually generate high quality decisions but frequently fail to adopt them as the solution. Without clear decision making procedures in mind, the safety standards and procedures were not met when danger was present on the Titanic. Ultimately, groupthink affected the people aboard the Titanic as many lost their lives due to the lack of life vests, lifeboats, and most importantly, the failure of clear decision-making
The question as to whether humans are inherently evil or good has been asked time and time again. Despite the fact Humans are naturally evil based on how they act under grim situations, the tendency of people to follow leaders that are evil, and how people have caused destruction, and have committed terrible acts throughout time. Humans often do terrible things when the situation for them is dire, even with the knowledge that doing said terrible things will only further the problem. A famous example of this is present in the story surrounding the wreck of the french ship, the Méduse.
One will think that when individuals are in groups they will mostly likely be able to help, and come to a person rescue, well that is the opposite of that. When people are in groups they tend to run away from the problem, instead of coming together to come to a conclusion. When one part of the group is doing something, the whole group is going to follow. Not one member of the group will have the guts to stand up and do the opposite of the group. It is like the whole group think alike.
People begin to have extreme courage and strength when there are accidents. We get scared for others and dive right into help them. Some people will risk their lives to help people in need of serious help. Just like Donald Usher and Eugene Windsor, the helicopter crew, that risked their lives every time they landed in the water in Roger Rosenblatt ’s essay The Man in the Water.
Herd behavior modified one’s thoughts and discourages others’ self-confidence. Group think influences others to not use their brains but to channel their emotions through feelings and emotions. This action to pressure individuals to conform, influence members of a group, to rely on others to stay safe and cancel out their opportunities to channel their own thoughts. In the teleplay “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, the article “When Good People Do Bad Things” written by Ann Trafton, and the article “Why Do People Follow The Crowd?” reported by ABC News, all provide instances where people lose touch with themselves and behave differently in a crowd.
The Titanic was a ship that was built to survive, but destined to fail from it’s safety standards and the crew’s failure to address an issue as life threatening as an
Group think According to Janis, who coined the term; groupthink “occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment” (1972, p. 9) further group think often leads to a decrease in the mental efficacy perception of reality and moral judgement, as personages find themselves in a group system that seeks high cohesion and unanimity which delimits the motivation of the individual to realistically appraise alternate courses of action (Janis, 1972). A common trait of a collective experiencing this phenomenon, is an inclination to take irrational decision making in addition to members of the group being similar in background and further being insulated from external insight. Comparably the singularity of groupthink is present in the film 12 Angry Men, and appears anecdotally, early on the film, present in the expected unanimous vote of ‘guilty,’ that will send the defendant to the electric chair. Invulnerability Literature surrounding the concept of group think is greatly rooted in the writings of Janis.
“Walter lord brings up during the novel that the reason why most passengers aboard the ship died was due to them not having access to the lifeboats on the Titanic. It mentions, “Especially when everyone realized there weren't enough boats for everyone.” If the Titanic never took this “risk” and experimented with not adding enough lifeboats, we wouldn't know nowadays that boats would need so many lifeboats in case of emergencies. With this, Walter Lord describes the cause and effect of this risk that led to a tragedy. He mentions, “Third officer Pitman…heard the cries…pitman was toned by the dilemma.”
Psychologist Irving Janis explained some alarmingly bad decisions made by governments and businesses coined the term "groupthink”, which he called "fiascoes.” He was particularly drawn to situations where group pressure seemed to result in a fundamental failure to think. Therefore, Janis further analyzed that it is a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members ' striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. According to Janis, groupthink is referred as the psychological drive for consensus at any cost that suppresses disagreement and prevents the appraisal of alternatives in cohesive decision-making groups.
In The Dangers of Groupthink, Naomi Karten provides the reader with a few of many examples on how they can avoid the dangerous phenomenon that is, Groupthink. Karten expresses her opinion by stating, “Diligently avoid a no-criticism culture and a no-criticism decision-making policy.” (The Danger of Groupthink, 2). Being able to avoid a nonconstructive environment is an extremely courageous step that can ultimately lead to one’s success. However, for one to achieve such a large task takes a tremendous effort, and requires one to place both their feelings and well being on the line.
It is a natural human instinct to want to be acknowledge by your peers, yet it is also important to be a critical thinker. Irving Janis in 1972 created the term groupthink. He believed groupthink occurs inside a group of similar people that want to keep from being different, resulting in incoherent decision-making. The 1957 film "12 Angry Men," uses groupthink, which influenced the verdict vote in the case of a teenager accused of murdering his father. The purpose of this essay is to examine groupthink and to represent Dr. Irving Janis’ symptoms of groupthink in the film.
The Titanic’s maiden voyage was a disaster because the people didn’t prepare for things like this. Most ships go over a safety procedures, but the Titanic didn’t do such a thing. They only rescued wealthy people, which I felt was wrong. Some passengers jumped off the ship in desperation. Whoever drove the ship couldn’t have been paying attention.
Have you ever been part of a team that made a terrible decision? You may have been part of a groupthink event. Groupthink is a term coined by Psychologist Irving Janis. He determined cohesive groups try to maintain unanimity rather than utilize all data to make a good decision (Whyte, 2000). Some historic examples of groupthink are the attack on Pearl Harbor, Iranian hostage rescue attempt, and the Holocaust.
After examining all the evidence,I have concluded that Design and Construction was the most significant cause in the tragedy of the Titanic. I believe this to be the cause because if the Design and the Construction was better, than maybe when it hit the iceberg ,either it would have given more people a chance to escape or it would have been fine. My factors aside from Design and Construction also contributed to the crash event on April 15,1912. The pie graph shows that Environmental Factors and Captain Smith had the least effect on why the Titanic sank. I chose to give Environmental Factors the lowest percentage with 1% of the responsibility because no one can control the environment.
Titanic was deemed unsinkable because it had 15 watertight bulkheads and a double bottom. The problem with this though was that “the watertight compartment design contained a flaw that was a critical factor in Titanic’s sinking: While the individual bulkheads were indeed watertight, the walls separating the bulkheads extended only a few feet above the waterline, so water could pour from one compartment into another, especially if the ship began to list or pitch forward.” Many people say that the ship was doomed from the start. On April 10th 1912, The Titanic set sail for Cherbourg, France and then to Queenstown, Ireland.
How can an “unsinkable” ship sank after only five days ? The event was so dramatic that an inquiry by the British Wreck Commissioner was convened to discuss safety in shipping; the result was the first concept of the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea ) International Convention [2], that prescribed numbers of lifeboats and other emergency equipment along with safety procedures, including continuous radio watches. This was one of the first international initiative to improve the safety in the maritime sector; another important step was the adoption of the ‘Convention on the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) by the United Nations Maritime Conference[6]. The Titanic was in fact equipped with only 20 lifeboats ( that could carry barely 1178 out of the total 2223 passengers on board ) [3].