Group Decision Making

Question 1

what do employers really care about?

Answer 1

our ability to work in teams
–> skill they care the most about whe hiring uni graduates

Question 2

what is some evidence towards the importance of team work?

Answer 2

Wuchty et al
meta analysis found that teams produced more highly cited and more impactful work than individuals
–> # of authors in papers has grown

Question 3

what are 2 main advantages of group decision-making?

Answer 3

1. larger pool of knowledge
2. can check each others’ errors

Question 4

what is an example of being able to check others errors?

Answer 4

in 2 exams, where 1 was individual and the other was in teams, averages increased from 71% to 92%
–> HOWEVER THIS WASN’T THE CASE FOR EVERYONE

Question 5

in which 2 cases do groups work really well?

Answer 5

1. when there is a clear right answer
2. when they listen to the group member who knows the most

Question 6

intellective tasks

Answer 6

tasks that have right answers
–> great for group work assuming someone actually knows the answer

Question 7

judgmental tasks

Answer 7

there isn’t a right or wrong answer
–> groups tend to struggle more

Question 8

what is the issue around listening to the group member who knows the most?

Answer 8

• the people who knows the most doesn’t always participate the most
  –> groups need to figure out who that is and make plans to use that knowledge

Question 9

in which situation do groups not work well?

Answer 9

1. when there is a failure to share unique info
   –> we have a tendency to focus on shared knowledge instead of individual knowledge, which doens’t actally make sense
2. when there is group polarization

Question 10

Laron 1998

Answer 10

Asked physicians to get in groups of 3 to diagnose hypothetical medical cases
Some information was given to all of them and some information was individual
They found that shared info was disproportionately discussed more than unshared info

Question 11

what is group polarization

Answer 11

the process of members’ initial shared beliefs becoming more extreme or polarized due to group interaction

Question 12

what are some IRL impacts of group polarization?

Answer 12

Modern media has become extremely polarized
–> Conservative and liberal social media have formed their groups
–> This leads to them having different social media feeds due to algorithms
–> This leads to more and more polarization in both liberals and conservatives

Question 13

is group polarization always bad?

Answer 13

no, if the group’s cause is positive (ie, fighting climate change), it can be okay
–> but it can often lead to divided societies

Question 14

3 conclus about group decision making

Answer 14

1. groups have an advantage
2. but also significant obstacles
3. we have to recognize and mitigate these

Question 15

are crowds or individuals smarter?

Answer 15

crowds, can revise answers and share info

Question 16

Sigman TEd Talk experiment

Answer 16

• asked simple right/wrong questions to a crowd
  –> when people were in groups they tended to get closer to the right answers

Question 17

what happened in the ted talk experiment when questions became harder, ie moral dilemas

Answer 17

people tended to reach consensus even if initially they were on completely opposing sides of the spectrum

Question 18

what did the ted talk experiment find about confidence?

Answer 18

• people with extreme opinions tended to be more confident
• while MOST people in the middle were less confident
  EXCEPT for those that were in the middle bc they recognized the validity of both arguments –> they tended to be confident

Question 19

what did they find with high-confidence middle raters?

Answer 19

groups that had them were more likely to reach a consensus

Question 20

what appears to be the way that people reach a consensus?

Answer 20

robust average
= statistically smart strategy. ignore extreme or obviously wrong answers to make an actual average
–> less weight to outliers

Question 21

do we use robust averages consciously?

Answer 21

no, it appears to be automatic and spontaneous

Question 22

what are 2 factors that affect good collective decisions?

Answer 22

1. deliberation
2. diversity of opinion

Question 23

what are some critiques of democracy?

Answer 23

ensures diversity (good) but doesn’t foster thoughtful debates

Question 24

what could be a better alternative than democracy?

Answer 24

forming small groups that converge into a single decision while still maintaining diversity of opinions bc of the many groups

Question 25

what is the issue with political group decision making?

Answer 25

questions are far more complex and so are harder to reach a consensus on