Members believe in the morality of their own group. They hold shared stereotypes of outsiders. Problems are dismissed with collective rationalization. Doubts are self-censored so that an illusion of unanimity occurs. By assigning members to act as devil's advocates and by holding second chance meetings, members can guard against groupthink.
Groups go through identifiable phases.
Using zero-history LGDs, researchers have mapped stages in the life of a group. C. Fisher found four phases. In the conflict phase, members experience secondary tension as they disagree about task and struggle to define leadership roles. Communication is noisy and argumentative. Secondary tension dissipates and leadership issues are resolved in the emergence phase.