Think Tank Groupthink

Anyone who has been to even just a handful of think tank events knows that groupthink is rampant at these brain trusts.

Gerald Seib, Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, recently wrote a piece about Washington groupthink, its dangers, and how to overcome it.  Here is an excerpt:

Conventional wisdom emerges with particular ease in Washington—a small, one-industry city in which politicians, journalists, analysts and lobbyists spend a great deal of time talking to one another. “A lot of people in this town spend a lot of time thinking about what other people in this town think,” says Jeff Weaver, who ran Sen. Bernie Sanders’s decidedly unconventional 2016 Democratic presidential campaign. “Anybody who has a contrary idea runs the risk of being ridiculed by others in the commentator community.”

Here is a 2016 ZeroHedge piece entitled "Too Many 'Think Tanks' Are Just Kool-Aid Fueled Group-Think."

Here is a 2015 Think Tank Watch post which mentions groupthink at think tanks.

Here is a 2012 piece on groupthink at think tanks from On Think Tanks.

Here is a 2009 piece by Nathan Hodge in Wired discussing groupthink and think tanks.

Here is a 2008 piece from Outside the Beltway on think tanks and groupthink.

One person even calls think tanks "groupthink tanks."

Has Jared Kushner already been sidelined by DC think tank groupthink?