The groupthink psychological phenomenon’s influence in DHS
A significnant threat to the homeland
The greatest threat to the homeland security of the United States of America is not a multinational terrorist organization or a large scale natural disaster it is the pervasive environment of groupthink, a psychological phenomenon that is endemic throughout the homeland security enterprise. However, the existence of groupthink in homeland security has not been thoroughly studied by the academic community, homeland security practitioners or reformers. The Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States specified, “The most important failure was one of imagination.” The commission found that the nation’s leaders did not understand the threat that Al Qaeda posed and, therefore, underestimated it. As a group, they never imagined that the 9/11 scenario could occur as the homeland security assets were focused on the threat outside of the nation and an attack occurring domestically was unforeseen.
The groupthink psychological phenomenon has negatively influenced innovation and critical thinking within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS was the most noteworthy product of the post 9/11 era, one the most widespread periods of groupthink in United States history. This period of our nation’s history and the groupthink environment that was pervasive throughout society was summed up by the September 20th, 2001, statements made by President George W. Bush, “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” and “Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done”.
DHS was hastily created to counter the threat of terrorism and once created the consolidation and organization of DHS was primarily left unfinished and a string of leaders have come and gone. Each of these leadership incarnations has suffered from the groupthink phenomenon putting forward their new agendas often abandoning past missions and programs continuously refocusing the department to further their own political agendas.
Groupthink a term that is credited to social psychologist Irving Janis (1972) occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment”. Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to this phenomenon when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making. Janis documented eight symptoms of groupthink many of which have plagued the DHS policy and decision making process since its origin.
1. Illusion of invulnerability — Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks. 2. Collective rationalization — Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions. 3. Belief in inherent morality — Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions. 4. Stereotyped views of out-groups — Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary. 5. Direct pressure on dissenters — Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views. 6. Self-censorship — Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed. 7. Illusion of unanimity — The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous. 8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ — Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.
Each of the eight groupthink symptoms were present in the initial formation of DHS particularly the “Belief in inherent morality; Stereotyped views of out-groups; Direct pressure on dissenters; and Illusion of unanimity. Furthermore, all eight of these symptoms are still present in the leadership of DHS that often discounts policies and programs that employ critical thinking and self analysis such as red teaming of security infrastructures or internal review and audit programs both of which expose and analyze the departments own vulnerabilities. DHS groupthink reasons that the vulnerabilities did not exist prior to being exposed by the programs or policies implementation and so the vulnerabilities are a byproduct of these programs not the faulty system. Consequently redirection, suspension or termination of the program or policy leads to the mitigation of the vulnerability.
