Agenda Effects on Group Decisions

摘要本研究拟对小型决策群体的议程效应进行实证研究。实验变化包括将决策选择排序并分组为子集，以将决策过程结构为“开放”（同时考虑所有选择），“竞赛”（选择顺序相互对抗，最终选择由最终“获胜者”决定），“可选停止”（一次考虑一个选择序列的接受-拒绝决定）和其他议程结构。个人偏好将通过两种方式被操纵：(a)诱导偏好操纵，通过使个人货币回报取决于群体选择；(b)态度操纵，通过改变选择的属性和衡量个人偏好，使选择选项更具或更少吸引力。将评估个人和群体选择、讨论过程中的信息汇集、群体选择的个人判断、个人决策策略的报告以及其他依赖度量来描述选择过程。委员会、陪审团和其他重要的小团体所作出的决定，有时会受到团体组织其决策过程的方式的极大影响。目前的研究研究的是试图解决实际、政治和法律问题的小团体。具体而言，我们研究了考虑顺序的变化和决策方案的直接比较模式对群体决策的影响；我们把这些对群体的操纵称为“议程”。第二个实验变量，即讨论开始时小组成员之间的信息分布，也在大多数实验中得到了研究，因为它也被证明对小组决策过程和结果有巨大而微妙的影响。＊＊＊

9410288 Hastie ABSTRACT A program of empirical research on agenda effects in small decision making groups will be conducted. The experimental variations involve the sequencing and grouping of decision alternatives into subsets to structure the decision process into "Open" (all alternatives considered simultaneously), "Tournament" (alternatives pitted against one another in sequence with the ultimate choice determined by the final "winner"), "Optional Stopping" (accept-reject decisions for a sequence of alternatives considered one at a time), and other agenda structures. Individual preferences will be manipulated in two ways: (a) induced preference manipulations by making individual monetary payoffs contingent on the group choice and (b) attitudinal manipulations whereby choice options are made more or less attractive by varying their attributes and measuring individual preferences. Individual and group choices, information pooling during discussion, individual judgments of the group choice, reports of individual decision strategies, and other dependent measures will be assessed to describe the choice process. The decisions reached by committees, juries, and other important small groups are affected, sometimes dramatically, by the manner in which the group structures its decision process. The present research studies small groups attempting to solve practical, political, and legal problems. Specifically, we study the effects on group decisions of variations in the order of consideration and the pattern of direct comparisons of decision alternatives; we call these variations manipulations of the group "agenda." A second experimental variable, the distribution of information across group members at the start of discussion, is also studied in most of the experiments because it also has been shown to have large, subtle effects on group decision processes and outcomes. ***