Mindguard

{{Short description|Member of a group who serves as an informational filter}}

In groupthink theory, a mindguard is a member of a group who serves as an informational filter, providing limited information to the group and, consciously or subconsciously, utilizing a variety of strategies to control dissent and to direct the decision-making process toward a specific, limited range of possibilities.{{cite news |last=Evans |first=Martin G. |date=January 24, 1981 |title='Group Think' can be disastrous |url=http://home.comcast.net/~evansmgmtutor/wsb/lettersandopeds/mindguards.html |url-status=dead |department=Letter to the Editor |work=Financial Post |location=Toronto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002170046/http://home.comcast.net/~evansmgmtutor/wsb/lettersandopeds/mindguards.html |archive-date=2015-10-02 |access-date=2022-03-20}} The presence of mindguards within a group is one of eight main "symptoms" of groupthink identified by its original theorist, Irving Janis.{{cite journal|last=Janis|first=I. L.|date=November 1971|title=Groupthink|url=http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/macdonald/GroupThink.pdf|url-status=unfit|journal=Psychology Today|volume=5|issue=6|pages=43–46, 74–76|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401033524/http://apps.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/macdonald/GroupThink.pdf|archive-date=April 1, 2010}} Mindguards can be self-appointed, and multiple mindguards are frequently present in groupthink situations.

The techniques utilized, consciously or subconsciously, by mindguards include:

• time pressure in regard to decision-making
• bandwagon effect/information cascades
• reframing situations to increase pressure toward or away from a specific outcome
• creating a sense that group cohesion will suffer if unanimity is lacking
• other techniques.{{citation |section-url=https://web.stanford.edu/~kcook/groupthink.html |section=The Theory of Groupthink Applied to Nanking |first1=Thomas |last1=Chi |first2=Shiao |last2=Chien |first3=Phillina |last3=Lai |first4=Andy |last4=Paez |first5=Margaret |last5=Switzer |first6=Baxter |last6=Underwood |editor-first1=Karen |editor-last1=Cook |editor-first2=Robin |editor-last2=Cooper |url=https://web.stanford.edu/~kcook/intro.html| title=Critical Eye on Nanking| access-date=2022-03-20}}

Mindguards exist in a variety of group settings.{{cn|date=March 2022}} They are not always easy to identify, which adds to the difficulty in countering the phenomenon.