No... the Abilene Paradox is not at all the same as groupthink. Where groupthink is the problem... you have a pervasive influence within the group that persuades all or most parties to agree on a collective decision. With the Abilene Paradox we have a situation where a majority of the members of a group don't agree with the group decision, but went along with the decision anyway because they thought a majority of others in the group supported it. This is a leadership, confidence, directness and bravery problem... not the poor-thinking-skills problem of groupthink.