Effects of decision rule and task importance on sharing of "unique" information

In a recent series of studies Stasser and colleagues have demonstrated that, within task-oriented groups, discussion tends to revolve around those facts which all group members are already aware of. The introduction and thorough consideration of "unique" information, or information that is initially known to only one group member, is minimal. This "Stasser Effect" runs counter to a popular justification for using group rather than individual decision-making units: Groups make use of the broader range of facts (produced by the pooling of individual knowledge sets) available to them. It was hypothesized that two variables held constant across Stasser's studies, decision rule (unanimity) and task importance (low), may actually be contributing to the persistence of the Stasser Effect. Four-person groups made a decision about a campus issue. The decision itself was manipulated to be of either low or high importance. In addition, groups were instructed to be either unanimous, a majority, or had no specific rule assigned them. Results showed that the absence of an assigned rule led to the introduction of significantly greater amounts of unique information. Further, once mentioned, unique information was repeated significantly more often when the decision was of perceived high importance.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio