Collective rationalization is the characteristic that allowed North American automobile executives to agree upon two “facts” about the consumers in the 1970s.  In particular, the executives agreed that (a) only a small segment of North American automobile buyers would, in fact, purchase Japanese-manufactured automobiles and (b) North American consumers would be willing to tolerate a per gallon gas price of over $2.50.  It is likely that at least one of those executives had concerns about the validity of these two assumptions and their impact upon the automobile design decision making process.  However, he or she may have been hesitant to express concerns in a meeting where others perceived the assumptions to be true.  This was groupthink and it had a remarkably negative impact upon the North American automobile industry. Over time, the American automobile industry has repeated this mistake multiple times.