“Groupthink defined.”
Well said and bears repeating.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process
The primary socially negative cost of groupthink is the loss of individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking. While this often causes groupthink to be portrayed in a negative light, because it can suppress independent thought, groupthink under certain contexts can also help expedite decisions and improve efficiency. As a social science model, groupthink has an enormous reach and influences literature in the fields of COMMUNICATIONS, political science, social psychology, management, organizational theory, and information technology.[1]...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
And thus, such groups that exist in group think mode can easily be led by the nose by strong personality types who have a tendency toward amorality and strong sociopathic tendencies. These personality types can manipulate and whip saw group think folks to their way of thinking without being manipulated themselves. It takes strong personalities, willing to endure social ostracism to counter such folks when they go really bad and corrupt!
Sometimes it can take whole armies to root them out....!