Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

It is commonly known that the benefit of decision-making group could pool members’ partial information. The groups could compose an unbiased recognition of the decision alternatives and then make the best decision. However, the biased sampling model of group discussion suggested that group members often fail to effectively pool their information because of two kinds of tendencies: (1) Information that members held in common before discussion and (2) information that supported members’ existing preferences. This study tested the above hypotheses of the model by a simulation in laboratory experiments of selection of candidates for student body president and then met in 4-person groups to decide which candidate was best suited for the position. 180 Zhejiang University undergraduates participated in these experiments under 3 conditions. Assignment to experimental condition and to decision-making groups within conditions was random. There were 60 subjects of 15 groups in each of the shared, unshared/consensus and unshared/conflict conditions. Their preference and information about each candidate they could remember in pre- and post-discussion were measured on questionnaires, which were compared by several methods. The results showed: most of the groups decided in favor of the candidate initially preferred by most of the members rather than the most favorable candidates. The data of group members’ pre- and post-discussion recall of candidate attributes indicated that discussion tended to perpetuate, not to correct members’ distorted pictures of the candidates. The results confirmed the hypotheses of the biased sampling model of group discussion proposed by Stasser and Larson. In order to improve the efficiency of pooling information in group decision-making, some measures, such as giving group decision training in advance, were also suggested by this study.

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