PrepTest 125, Section 1, Question 22

Working the answers

• A

  The professional diversity of these groups doesn't tell us whether their members trusted and supported one another's judgments. Without that connection, the finding doesn't test the claimed condition.

• B

  This supports the first paragraph's point that cohesion can make dissent easier. But the question asks about the conditions under which groupthink occurs. Showing a benefit of cohesion doesn't establish that cohesion is required for groupthink, or tell us when the benefit gives way to the harmful pattern.

• C
  Correct

  This supports the condition from the other direction: where cohesion is absent, researchers found no groupthink. Members who generally distrust one another's judgments lack the mutual support described in the opening. Finding no groupthink in many such groups backs the claim that cohesion is necessary. It doesn't need to show that every cohesive group develops groupthink.

• D

  Stubborn factions prolonging a disagreement don't support the proposed connection between cohesion and groupthink. They suggest persistent division rather than uncritical concurrence.

• E

  This doesn't support the claimed condition. Removing voluntary deference as a requirement gives us no new reason to think cohesion is necessary, and it cuts against the account's emphasis on yielding to the group's judgment.