groupthink
Americannoun
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the practice of approaching problems or issues as matters that are best dealt with by consensus of a group rather than by individuals acting independently; conformity.
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the lack of individual creativity, or of a sense of personal responsibility, that is sometimes characteristic of group interaction.
noun
Etymology
Origin of groupthink
1950–55; group + think 1, on the model of doublethink
Explanation
When people collectively make a decision or state an opinion, especially one that seems foolish, they're using groupthink. If you go along with your friends' idea to jump off a moving hayride together, you're a victim of groupthink. The word groupthink is most commonly used in an office or business context. This phenomenon occurs when people who like and trust each other go along with an idea without stopping to think it through critically. It first appeared in Fortune magazine in 1952, inspired by George Orwell's 1984 and its terms like "doublethink." Today groupthink is considered a psychological phenomenon that occurs when conforming to a group feels more important than reason and rationality.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a description of a room where groupthink had replaced honest conversation — not through force, but through accumulated avoidance.
From MarketWatch • May 27, 2026
"Upvotes reward what a community likes, not what is true, so you can get information cascades, groupthink, and strong echo chambers in certain subreddits."
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
When I asked him about how the Fed might institute a mechanism to question its groupthink, he suggested the institution borrow a technique by the national security experts in war games to question its models.
From Barron's • Feb. 1, 2026
Zombies doubling as a metaphor for consumerism or groupthink?
From Salon • Jan. 23, 2026
Their intended audience includes national security bureaucrats in the U.S. and abroad and the think-tankers and journalists obliged by a sense of professional responsibility to at least scan these generally leaden, cliché-ridden products of groupthink.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
