Which action mitigates groupthink in group decision-making?

• A. Suppress disagreement to accelerate decisions
• B. Encourage dissent and appoint a devil's advocate
• C. Seek only internal opinions
• D. Ignore external input

Answer: (B)

Groupthink happens when the desire for harmony and quick agreement shuts down critical evaluation, causing a group to overlook alternatives and flawed assumptions. The most effective way to counter this is to create structured challenges to the consensus. Encouraging dissent and appointing a devil's advocate gives the group a built-in mechanism to question ideas, defend minority viewpoints, and demand justification for the chosen path. This practice breaks the pressure to conform, broadens the range of information considered, and surfaces potential risks the group might miss.

Why this works better than the others: suppressing disagreement increases conformity and speeds up a flawed decision, which fuels groupthink. Seeking only internal opinions or ignoring external input keeps perspectives and information narrow, missing valuable outside insights and risks, and again fueling biases. By introducing deliberate critique, the team embraces diverse viewpoints and improves the quality of the final decision.