Doctoral Dissertation Research: Innovation and Influence in Group Problem-Solving

爱荷华大学不受欢迎的观点如何增强群体创造力？不受欢迎的少数观点（即群体中少数人持有的观点）有可能通过催化思考问题的新方式来激发创新。相比之下，多数人的观点导致人们狭隘地关注思考问题的常规方式。然而，仅仅提出少数人的观点可能不足以确保它会影响其他小组成员对问题的看法。这就引出了一个问题：“在什么条件下，少数人的观点会变得更有影响力？”这个项目解决了这个问题。先前的研究表明，地位会影响影响力。那些在社会上更受尊重和尊敬的人（即地位较高的人）比地位较低的人更有影响力。然而，提出不受欢迎的观点可能会受到批评，导致表达少数派观点的个人被群体成员贬低，从而失去地位。现有的研究表明，群体成员重视自己的社会地位，并寻求避免任何可能导致社会地位丧失的行为。因此，将这两种独立的见解结合起来，就会产生一个有趣的悖论。一方面，地位较高的群体成员可能会比地位较低的群体成员通过支持少数人的观点来影响其他人以更有创造性的方式思考。另一方面，群体成员可能会避免支持少数人的观点，因为可能产生的负面评价会使他们失去地位。本项目通过一项实验来探索这一悖论，该实验旨在测试(1)社会地位如何影响群体中少数派观点对创造力的影响，以及(2)群体成员表达少数派观点如何影响该成员在群体中的社会地位。这个实验是在爱荷华大学的群体过程研究中心进行的，通过整合两种现有的社会心理学研究，以一种以前没有探索过的方式来研究群体问题的解决。关于少数民族影响的见解主要是在心理学领域发展起来的，而关于地位和影响的见解主要是在社会学领域发展起来的。本课题所代表的前沿集成是群体问题求解研究中重要而新颖的一步。它通过调查与少数群体影响相关的心理过程（有助于群体创造力）如何受到影响社会影响的地位过程的影响，从而提高了群体过程的社会学知识。更广泛的影响。该项目具有明显的广泛影响和社会效益。当我们的世界面临诸如恐怖袭击激增、安全问题和疾病控制等难题时，各组织正在承担寻找最佳解决方案的责任，同时避免在解决问题时出现灾难性的失误。创建能够找到这些问题的最佳解决方案的团队，需要了解地位和少数群体影响等重要的社会动态是如何运作的。这项研究有望使我们走向这种理解。社会学和心理学洞察力的整合将为更多关于群体问题解决的跨学科研究创造机会。将通过在与社会学家和心理学家有关的期刊和会议上传播研究结果来促进这种整合。此外，该项目还包括女本科生研究助理的参与，为妇女参与科学研究提供了重要机会，并为她们提供了社会心理学研究实验方法方面的培训。此外，由于地位进程是本项目的中心，这项研究将提出战略，以便有效地使地位较低、代表人数不足的群体成员参与解决问题，并确保听取和考虑少数群体的观点，不论其来源如何。

SES-0526382Lisa TroyerReef YoungreenUniversity of IowaHow do unpopular views enhance group creativity? Unpopular, minority views (i.e., those held by a numerical minority in a group) have the potential to incite innovation by catalyzing new ways of thinking about issues. In contrast, majority views engender a narrow focus on routine ways of thinking about issues. Yet, merely presenting a minority view may not be sufficient to ensure that it is influences how other group members think about the issues. This begs the question, "Under what conditions do minority views become more influential?" This project addresses this question. Prior research shows that status affects influence. Those who are more socially respected and esteemed (i.e., those with higher status) are more influential than lower-status people. Presenting unpopular viewpoints, however, can be met with criticism, leading the individual voicing the minority view to be de-valued by group members and thus lose status. Existing research demonstrates that group members value their social status, and seek to avoid any actions that may result in a loss of social status. Consequently, integrating these two independent insights suggests an interesting paradox. On the one hand, higher status group members may influence others to think in more creative ways than lower status members by espousing minority views. On the other hand, group members are likely to refrain from espousing a minority view, since the negative evaluations that are likely to result will generate a loss of status for them. This project explores this paradox through an experiment designed to test (1) how social status affects the impact of a minority view on creativity in groups, and (2) how the expression of a minority view by a group member affects the member's social status in the group. This experiment, conducted at the University of Iowa's, Center for the Study of Group Processes, examines group problem solving in ways not previously explored by integrating two existing lines of social psychological research. Insights on minority influence have been primarily developed in the field of psychology, while insights on status and influence have been primarily developed in the field of sociology. The cutting-edge integration represented in this project is an important and novel step in research on group problem solving. It advances sociological knowledge of group processes by investigating how psychological processes related to minority influence (which contribute to creativity in groups) are impacted by status processes that affect social influence. Broader Impacts. This project has clear broader impacts and social benefits. At a time when our world faces difficult problems like a surge of terrorist attacks, security issues, and disease containment, groups are being charged with finding optimal solutions while avoiding catastrophic missteps in problem solving. Creating groups that can find the best possible solutions to these problems requires understanding how important social dynamics like status and minority influence operate. This research promises to move us toward this understanding. The integration of sociological and psychological insight will forge opportunities for more interdisciplinary research on group problem solving. This integration will be facilitated through the dissemination of the study results in journals and conferences relevant to both sociologists and psychologists. Additionally, the project involves the participation of female undergraduate research assistants, providing an important opportunity to engage women in scientific research and provide them with training in experimental methods of social psychological research. Furthermore, since status processes are central to this project, this research will suggest strategies for effectively incorporating members of lower-status, under-represented groups in problem solving and for ensuring that minority viewpoints are heard and considered, irrespective of their source.