Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion

By Christopher Booker

Book Overview

In Groupthink, his final book, the late, eminent journalist and bestselling author Christopher Booker seeks to identify the hidden key to understanding much that is disturbing about the world today.

With reference to the ideas of a Yale professor who first identified the theory, and to the writings of George Orwell from whose 'newspeak' the word was adapted, Booker sheds new light on the remarkable - and worrying - effects of 'groupthink', and its influence on our society.

Booker defines the three rules of groupthink: the adoption of a common view or belief not based on objective reality; the establishment of a consensus of right-minded people, an 'in group'; and the need to treat the views of anyone who questions the belief as wholly unacceptable. He shows how various interest groups, journalists and even governments in the twenty-first century have subscribed to this way of thinking, with deeply disturbing results.

As Booker shows, such behaviour has led to a culture of fear, heralded by countless examples throughout history, from Revolutionary Russia to Napoleonic France and Hitler's Germany. In the present moment it has caused countless errors in judgement and the division of society into highly polarised, oppositional factions.

As Booker argues, only by examining its underlying causes can we understand the sinister power of groupthink which permeates all aspects of our lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1399417320
• ISBN13: 9781399417327
• Release Date: September 2024
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Continuum
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Clear, concise and iconoclastic.

The author brings an insightful mix of current events, historical realities, Aristotelean philosophy and psychology together into a very easy read. It comes with some surprises, both good and disappointing. For example in a book that warns of the dangers of the herd that uncritically accepts false ideas as "facts," and doesn't bother to check the veracity of the "facts" they repeat, the author inadvertently falls into a common, but completely false, groupthink myth of believing that "Few episodes in the history of science, for instance, are more famous than the treatment accorded to Galileo for his questioning of the Church's 'consensus' that the Earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun moved around it." Oh the irony! Elsewhere, Booker reiterates other popular, but factually false, notions such as recent events in the US evidenced by "…repeated incidents where trigger-happy white police were shooting black men for what appeared to be the most spurious reasons…" The astute reader will find other examples of groupthink, some more embarrassing than others. These factual errors notwithstanding, the book is important and timeless, and sadly, written just before the COVID fiasco about which I am sure that the author would have had much to say. Sadly, again, Booker is no longer with us, having passed in 2019. At only 200 pages, this is a fast and good read. Important concepts are generally handled in an objective manner. Some of the concepts in the book will be offensive to less mature adults, and obviously offensive to those who are comfortable with uncritical groupthink. For critical readers, the work will be refreshing and useful as a reference.