Research on hazing in higher education has primarily focused on Greek-letter organizations and athletes, with little research beyond these two subsets of college students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the attitudes of students from the general student population at a Canadian university with regard to hazing and identify…

The public expression of opinions (and related communicative activities) hinges upon the perception of opinion consensus. Current explanations for opinion consensus perceptions typically focus on egocentric and other biases, rather than functional cognitions. Using self-categorization theory we showed that opinion consensus perceptions flow from…

Theory and research are presented relating the need for cognitive closure to major facets of group behavior. It is suggested that a high need for closure, whether it is based on members' disposition or the situation, contributes to the emergence of a behavioral syndrome describable as group-centrism--a pattern that includes pressures to opinion…

In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. "The Difference" is about how we think in groups--and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions…

A new paradigm for computer-supported cooperative work and a research agenda for developing and testing this paradigm are proposed. The book outlines a comprehensive model of collaboration that integrates the cognitive/conceptual and social dynamics of groups. The challenge faced by all groups engaged in intellectual work is to divide the task so…

This study examines the impact of one important task characteristic for the process by which groups solve problems. The principal comparison is between a generative problem and a choice task, and whether or not the differences between these types of tasks affect the group's methods for arriving at a decision. Two types of analysis are conducted of…

Presents conceptual model of group decision-making process that identifies essential factors and processes that impact upon group decisions. Integrates concepts from various academic disciplines to provide theoretical framework for research generation and to organize and synthesize past and future research findings in effort to establish…

The tendency for individuals to reduce their own efforts when others are available to respond has been called "social loafing." Social loafing has been found also to characterize collective endeavors on tasks considered cognitively efffortful. To test the hypothesis that reduced cognitive effort related to the presence of a coacting group would…

Mathematical models have been used extensively to describe the judgmental processes and strategies of individual decision makers, but rarely have the procedures been extended to describe the judgmental strategies of decision-making groups. The present study attempts to extend the procedures for the purposes of describing group decision-making…

Past research has suggested that reliance upon implicit theories may depend upon the ambiguity or salience of provided cues. Previously unexplored factors were investigated to further an understanding of implicit theories related to group processes, by: (1) utilizing a no feedback control group in addition to high and low feedback groups; (2)…

A study examined the effect of assigned social decision rule (whether a jury is required to give a unanimous or less than unanimous verdict) on the process and product of mock jury deliberations. Subjects, 360 students from an eastern university, were randomly assigned to six-member juries under three decision rule conditions: (1) unanimity, (2)…

To provide a theoretical base for investigating the influence of inferential error on group decision making, current literature on both inferential error and decision making is reviewed and applied to the Watergate incident. Although groups tend to make fewer inferential errors because members' inferences are generally not biased in the same…

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO TEST THE THEORY THAT LABORATORY GROUPS MAKING COMPLEX DECISIONS WILL DISTORT THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF EACH OTHER IN WAYS PREDICTABLE FROM NEWCOMB'S A-B-X MODEL OF PERCEPTUAL DISTORTION IN WHICH "A" REPRESENTS THE PERCEIVING INDIVIDUAL, "B" REPRESENTS ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE GROUP, AND "X" THE…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive abstractness levels, interpersonal perception abilities, and task type (factual or social problem solving) on group performance as measured by time consumed and adequacy of solutions. Eighteen college classes from Kearney State College participated in testing of perceptual…

The study described in this volume investigated the talk of thirteen-year-old boys and girls, recorded while they were working in small groups on tasks set by their teachers. Specifically, research focused on the interplay between cognitive and communicative functions of speech in contexts planned for learning. "The Children and Their Talk"…