Ignoring or suppressing dissidents, discordant information, and policy options are all causes of groupthink. Another is the reluctance of subordinates to offer discordant opinions. Among the effects of groupthink are limited policy choices, lowest common denominator policy, and poor policy. The idiosyncratic-behavior approach explores the factors that determine the perceptions, decisions, and actions of specific leaders. A leader's personality, physical and mental health, ego and ambitions, understanding of history, personal experiences, and perceptions are all factors.
Perceptions are especially important to understanding how leaders react to the world.
These spring from such sources as a group's or an individual's belief system, an individual's values, and the information available to the individual. Perceptions can be explained by exploring operational reality. How a group or an individual perceives a situation, another individual, or another country is often a distortion of reality. Distorted perceptions are important because leaders act on what they perceive to be true rather than on what is objectively true. The McGraw-Hill Companies.