THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 85 Hearing the words of the citation— “His work in support of Liberia’s transition to constitutional government has been a central feature of United States assistance to Liberia”—I felt shame, not pride. A Case of “Groupthink” As we know, my Liberian contacts were dead right and we were dead wrong. Throwing off U.S. attempts at persuasion, Doe fraudulently elected himself president in 1985, and his misrule drove Liberia ever deeper into chaos, until a civil But I was not just feigning loyalty to a misguided policy. At one level I believed what I was saying, even while at a deeper level doubt festered. war broke out four years later that continued off and on for a generation, bringing unimaginable violence, devastation, and hardship to the country. What I experienced was a classic case of “groupthink,” where members of a circle of insiders who feel challenged by outsiders tighten ranks, subordinate personal values to those of the leadership, invent ever-more-strained rationales for their behavior, and compartmentalize their thinking, so they can continue to believe in their own moral good, despite taking actions that they might otherwise reject. Groupthink is part of the human condition. In some circumstances, hanging together might make the difference between life and death. But in everyday life, the stakes are almost never that high. Many people in my industry, socially responsible investment, see ethical failure on a massive scale in the corporate world and blame executives. Given my experience, I am not so judgmental. But I do feel that we can learn to recognize, and counter, groupthink. Hopefully we can all become sufficiently self-aware and self-confident to do the right thing when the moral gain of standing apart from the group outweighs the cost of leaving it. n
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