Group decision making

Question 1

Hill 1982

Answer 1

• evidence for process loss and process gain in group decision making tasks
• most of the time groups performed at the accuracy of second-best member of the group

Question 2

why is comparing groups hard?

Answer 2

task type
-intellective vs judgement tasks
-well-defined vs ill-defined tasks
standards of comparison
-how are you going to say whether it is good or bad decision?
coordination methods
-no discussion --> averaging
-iterative --> everyone gives answers, you see them and then can adjust if you want
-pick best person
-discussion --> consensus
individual differences

Question 3

when does averaging work?

Answer 3

-when individuals provide independent estimates for when errors are unrelated to each other, not influenced by others judgements, no systematic bias and no coordination in discussion between group members

Question 4

what are correlated errors vs uncorrelated errors

Answer 4

• correlated are when people’s judgements are systematically off
• uncorrelated are when there is a spread around the true value

Question 5

what is polarisation in group decision making?

Answer 5

when group becomes obsessed with a single answer defined by single member and become impervious to signals that might suggest it is wrong

• overconfidence
• blindness to errors
• due to conformity

Question 6

interactionist account

Answer 6

-reason evolved to produce and evaluate arguments, not for individuals to solve problems

Question 7

how do groups reason?

Answer 7

• exchange of arguments
• arguments change people’s problem representation of the task
• the group can outperform the best individual

Question 8

does general intelligence of group members predict collective intelligence?

Answer 8

-no, groups of smart people didn’t outperform groups of less smart people

Question 9

what are predictors of group intelligence?

Answer 9

• people with better social perceptiveness, able to overcome coordination problem and perform better as group
• groups with more women do better
• groups with more equal distribution of discussion

Question 10

why is the “reading the mind in they eyes” test a good predictor of group intelligence?

Answer 10

because group function is primarily predicted by coordination, not the intelligence of individual’s in the group

Question 11

What is the correct order of the stages in Gigone & Hastie (1997)’s lens model of group decision making?

Answer 11

cue perception, Individual judgement, judgement revision