Group Discussion and Judgment

The influence of group discussion on individual judgments and group decisions is one of the oldest problems in the experimental study of small groups (Bechterev & DeLange, 1924; Burtt, 1920; Marston, 1924). Early interest was focused primarily on the quality of group versus individual products, that is, on the question are groups better than individuals? Attention has turned more recently to examining judgmental shifts per se, without regard to improvement or decline in quality. We will be concerned primarily with changes induced by discussion, and will not deal at length with the perplexing question of whether the changes are for the better. The judgments and decisions with which we will deal are those where alternatives are along a bipolar, unidimensional scale of some sort, for example, “How large should the damage award be in a civil trial?”

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