1961
Bay of Pigs: When Smart People Do Stupid Things
JFK surrounded himself with brilliant advisors - Harvard professors, Rhodes scholars, accomplished diplomats.
Yet they all agreed to an invasion plan so obviously flawed that even the CIA agents on the ground knew it would fail.
Why? Because no one wanted to be the person who questioned the group consensus.
Irving Janis
Yale psychologist who coined the term "groupthink" after studying this and other foreign policy disasters.
later called this a perfect example of how intelligent people can make catastrophically bad decisions when group conformity overrides critical thinking.
1986
Challenger: The Silence That Killed Seven
Morton Thiokol engineers knew the O-rings would fail in cold weather. They recommended postponing the launch.
But NASA managers created a group culture where "go fever" dominated - questioning a launch was career suicide.
The engineers were pressured to reverse their recommendation. Result: seven dead astronauts and a shuttle program set back years.
Sometimes the price of going along with the group is measured in lives.
2008
Wall Street: When Everyone Drinks the Same Kool-Aid
"Housing prices never go down nationwide." This became Wall Street gospel. Anyone who questioned it was labeled a pessimist,
excluded from meetings, passed over for promotions. The few analysts who warned of a bubble were marginalized.
Banks, rating agencies, and regulators all reinforced each other's delusions. The result? The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Millions lost their homes because a handful of financial elites couldn't tolerate dissent.