PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Kelly, Karau / GROUP DECISION MAKING Group Decision Making: The Effects of Initial Preferences and Time Pressure

Triads, working under time pressure or not, participated in a management simulation that asked groups to decide which of two cholesterol-reducing drugs to market. The total distribution of information available to the group always favored the same drug. However, members ’ initial preferences were manipulated by varying the distribution of shared information (provided to all members) and unshared information (provided to only a sin-gle member) supporting each alternative. Thus, each member’s fact sheet either (a) favored the correct decision (correct prefer-ence condition), (b) mildly favored the incorrect decision (weak incorrect preference condition), or (c) strongly favored the incor-rect decision (strong incorrect preference condition). Initial pref-erences were major determinants of group decisions. Time pres-sure either enhanced or reduced decision quality depending on the strength of initial preferences and the content of the group interactions. These findings are discussed in light of Karau and Kelly’s Attentional Focus Model of group performance. Many of the world’s most important decisions are made in small groups. Government agencies, businesses, research institutions, and a wide variety of other organi-zations all frequently use small groups to make decisions and solve problems. Given that group decisions can have a lasting impact on both group members and oth-ers affected by the decision, it is vital to identify factors that may lead to low quality decisions. One especially pervasive factor may be time pressure. Indeed, time is an integral component of every group task, and deci-sions are usually made under some type of deadline. But despite the importance of temporal factors, surpris-ingly few researchers have devoted much theoretical or empirical effort to understanding the effects of time pressure on group performance and decision making. The present research was designed to examine the joint effects of time pressure and strength of members ’ initial decision preferences on group interaction and decision outcomes