This section will look into the term “Groupthink” and how it correlates with Charles Manson and The Manson Family cult. Groupthink, as defined by social psychologist Irving Janis is, “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistic appraise alternative courses of action…Groupthink refers to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgement that results from in-group pressures” (Johnson & Weaver, 1992). Groups, such as the “The Manson Family”, tend to ignore alternatives and take unreasonable actions that degrade other groups. Manson and his followers, who have similar background’s, tend to be more vulnerable to groupthink especially when the group is protected from outside beliefs, and when there are no rules for decision making.
Charles Manson and several of his followers were sentence to prison is 1969 for murder of eight people (Review In Brief, 1977). Manson was the leader of a group that some label as The Manson Family. He was said to have many followers in his group, some suggest close to one-hundred at one point who resided and often traveled together. Manson was the leader of what …show more content…
This next section will cover the relationship between Charles Manson and the Manson Family and the eight main symptoms described by Irving Janis. As mentioned in (Whyte, 1989), “Janis identified eight main symptoms of groupthink: (a) an illusion of invulnerability, (b) an illusion of mortality, (c) rationalization, (d) stereotyping, (e) self-censorship, (f) an illusion of unanimity, (g) direct pressure on dissidents, and (h) reliance upon self-appointed mindguards”. Many, if not all of Janis’s groupthink symptoms can be associated with Charles Manson and The Manson