Question

Debra is an advisor to the president. before a weekly staff meeting, the president asks her to play ‘devil's advocate', and argue against the majority opinion. the president is most likely trying to prevent ________ from occurring

Answer 1

The President is trying to alleviate groupthink. Having Debra take an opinion against the majority allows the rest of the staff to re-think their own positions and see the merits (and demerits) of both sides of the argument. This stops everyone from blindly falling into a mode whereby they will agree with anything posited, simply because someone else put the idea forward.