The DOI matches its Crossref record; 19 of the 19 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Devil's Advocate: A Strategy to Avoid Groupthink and Stimulate Discussion in Focus Groups
Abstract
The focus group is an increasingly popular qualitative research method in health research to gain insight into complex problems. Concerns have been expressed about how best to stimulate free and open discussion; especially on controversial issues and/or when the group comprises people with different power and status. A potential pitfall of the focus group technique is group-think: the impact of censoring and conforming as described by such social psychologists as Irving Janis. The article describes an evaluation of a method to reduce groupthink and stimulate creativity and controversy in focus groups that analyzed consultation between an Australian federal government department and its communities. The article recommends to researchers using focus groups the selective use of devil's advocates to reflect different perspectives to groups, to ask questions in a different way, to introduce new questions, and to avoid groups arriving at premature solutions.
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In the citing paper
“The experiment confirmed that the operation of the devil's advocacy opened up new alternatives but it was unclear whether the final decision quality was improved or not.”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“A devil's advocate takes an opposite position against alternative solutions that presented by fellow ingroup members [28, 29].”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Some studies recommended the devil's advocacy to prevent groupthink [28, 29, 47].”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“This opposition triggers the other group members to reflect on the issues from different perspectives and to avoid the premature solutions [29].”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“simulation results show that adding more devil's advocates increases the number of explored solutions during the group decision making.”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“the formulation of the devil's advocate behavior is formulated as the agent's opposition against ingroup members' solutions instead of adopting them. This mechanism is consistent with the devil's advocacy role in which an opposite position is formed against alternatives presented by the other ingroup members [28, 29].”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“The experiment confirmed that the operation of the devil's advocacy opened up new alternatives but it was unclear whether the final decision quality was improved or not.”
From Closed-mindedness and insulation in groupthink: their effects and the devil’s advocacy as a preventive measure (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Following recommendations by MacDougall and Baum [51], the first author served as the devil’s advocate to challenge assumptions made and present alternative interpretations or coding of the data.”
Citations
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Metadata
- Authors
- MacDougall, C., & Baum, F.
- Affiliations
- Flinders University (AU)
- Department of Public Health at Flinders University of South Australia, South Australian Community Health Research Unit
- Corresponding author
- MacDougall, Colin
- ORCID
- MacDougall, Colin
- Venue
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1997-11
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 532-541
- ISSN
- 1049-7323 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7557
- OpenAlex
- W2132549529
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 3.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Qualitative Health Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Delphi Technique in Research
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Keywords
- devil's advocate, groupthink, focus groups, group discussion, controversial issues, conformity, creativity, health research methods
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