# The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink

*Wilcutt · Safety & Error, Voice & Silence · NASA Safety and Mission Assurance (briefing document) · 2014 · Open access*

A NASA Safety and Mission Assurance briefing applying Diane Vaughan's normalisation of deviance concept alongside Janis's groupthink to a series of high-profile failures: Shuttle O-ring waivers, external tank foam strikes, the Costa Concordia grounding, and ISS EVA-23. Makes the connection between organisational silence and catastrophic outcome with institutional directness unusual in safety communications. Useful as a practitioner-facing synthesis of academic concepts applied to real incidents, and as evidence that the highest-stakes organisations take the cost of silence seriously as a systemic — not individual — problem.

- **This page:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/nasa-normalization-deviance-2014/
- **View the source paper:** https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-normalizationofdeviance-2014-11-03b.pdf
- **Interactive map:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/?mode=papers&node=nasa-normalization-deviance-2014

## Connected concepts (11)

- [The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/vaughan-1996.md) (paper)
- [Human Error: Models and Management](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/reason-2000.md) (paper)
- [Local Rationality](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/local-rationality.md)
- [Normalisation of Deviance (Challenger)](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/normalisation-of-deviance.md)
- [Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/morrison-milliken-2000.md) (paper)
- [Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/janis-1982.md) (paper)
- [The Dark Side of Trust](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/gargiulo-ertug-2006.md) (paper)
- [Barriers to PS](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/barriers-to-psychological-safety.md)
- [Normal Accidents](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/normal-accidents.md)
- [Open Secrets & Half-Baked Ideas](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-63-open-secrets-half-baked-ideas.md)
- [Types of Silence](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/types-of-silence.md)