Abilene paradox attitudes towards them if they do not go along. This action-anxiety arises from what Harvey termed "negative fantasies"—unpleasant visualizations of what the group might say or do if individuals are honest about their opinions—when there is "real risk" of displeasure and negative consequences for not going along. The individual may experience "separation anxiety", fearing exclusion from the group. The theory is often used to help explain extremely poor group decisions, especially notions of the superiority of "rule by committee". For example, Harvey himself cited the Watergate scandal as a potential instance of the Abilene paradox in action. The Watergate scandal
Effective group decision-making as a series of interrelated sub-decisions leading to the final decision. According to the theory the quality of the final decision is based on 1)analysis of the problem/ situation 2) establishment of goals and objectives 3)evaluation of positive and negative qualities of the available choices. This theory shows that group decision performance is largely depended on the wise group decision-makings from social interactions. The theory contains 14 propositions as a core. Of those, the first half focuses on the influence of input on the process of decision-making. Here Oetzel assumes that individual members of homogeneous groups activate either independent self-construals