Effectiveness of informational and normative influences in group decision making depends on the group interactive goal

Male or female subjects believed they were exchanging notes with four other members of a decision-making group of the same gender. Notes were contrived to exert either normative or informational influences. Instructions stressed either task goals, in which attaining the optimum, most correct decision was important, or group goals, which stressed group relations, mutual consideration and harmony. As predicted, group goals facilitated greater normative influence, and task goals facilitated greater informational influence. A form of influence is most effective when it is congruent with the interactive goal of the group, supporting Kaplan's (1987, 1989) model of conditions determining influence processes in groups. Contrary to predictions, gender did not interact with the interactive goal/influence type conjunction. The effect of the interactive goal on the impact of normative or informational influence was particularly striking, and furnishes a strong test of the hypothesis, given the minimal nature of group interchange in this study.