The Abilene Paradox¶
Harvey, J. B. (1974). The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement. Organizational Dynamics, 3(1), 63-80.
Cited by¶
4 citations across 4 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Private-Public Preference Divergence
- Spiral Of Silence In Publics
- Organizations and meetings. The "nobody objected, so we shipped it" pattern; silent demurral that surfaces in the retro but not in the room; psychological-safety failures where junior staff read the apparent consensus and stop voicing concerns. Online platforms. Vocal minorities dominate comment sections and ratings while quieter users self-censor as the visible tilt steepens; the documented gap between platform discourse and broader user opinion. Science and academia. Paradigm-defense by visible authorities suppresses junior dissent; the conference-Q&A asymmetry; the unpublished-result drawer; rapid public shifts on suddenly-permissible topics that had long been privately held. Markets and financial commentary. Bubble periods feature suppressed bearish voices and analysts shading public reports toward the dominant consensus, with the "everyone secretly thought it was overvalued" recognition arriving only after a crash. Small groups and families. The Abilene paradox — going along with what nobody actually wants because each believes the others want it — and unanimous votes that disguise unanimous private misgivings.
This sourceDescribes the Abilene paradox — a group going along with what no member privately wants because each misreads the others — the small-group/organizational instance of consensus decoupled from private belief.
- Organizations and meetings. The "nobody objected, so we shipped it" pattern; silent demurral that surfaces in the retro but not in the room; psychological-safety failures where junior staff read the apparent consensus and stop voicing concerns. Online platforms. Vocal minorities dominate comment sections and ratings while quieter users self-censor as the visible tilt steepens; the documented gap between platform discourse and broader user opinion. Science and academia. Paradigm-defense by visible authorities suppresses junior dissent; the conference-Q&A asymmetry; the unpublished-result drawer; rapid public shifts on suddenly-permissible topics that had long been privately held. Markets and financial commentary. Bubble periods feature suppressed bearish voices and analysts shading public reports toward the dominant consensus, with the "everyone secretly thought it was overvalued" recognition arriving only after a crash. Small groups and families. The Abilene paradox — going along with what nobody actually wants because each believes the others want it — and unanimous votes that disguise unanimous private misgivings.
Mechanisms¶
- Consensus Vote
- Called too early, it locks in whatever anchor was on the table and can ratify an Abilene-paradox outcome that no one privately wanted.
This sourceDefines the Abilene paradox as a group collectively taking an action contrary to what its members privately wanted because they failed to communicate and manage agreement.
- Called too early, it locks in whatever anchor was on the table and can ratify an Abilene-paradox outcome that no one privately wanted.
- Perceived Consensus Correction Note
- Its strength is forestalling the Abilene paradox
This sourceDefines the Abilene paradox as collective agreement on a course no member privately wants because members misread one another's silence and preferences.
- Its strength is forestalling the Abilene paradox
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Not recorded. Neither this nor any other of the 4 citations of this work carries a recorded support check.
Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.
See how references were verified.
Registry ID ref:40d71e01c7e2 · see in the full table