Informational Centrality in Decision Making Groups

大多数现实世界的决策群体面临的一个基本问题是决策相关信息在成员之间的不均匀分布。由于日常经验、正规培训和工作角色的差异，一些群体成员经常会遇到群体中其他人不具备的一定数量的决策相关信息。这种唯一持有的知识被称为非共享信息，与许多群体成员持有的共享信息形成对比。尽管这种非共享信息具有潜在的价值，但过去的研究一直表明，群体往往会做出更符合其共享信息而不是非共享信息影响的决策。目前的研究的目的是调查的命题，群体成员谁拥有更广泛的共享信息实际上有更大的影响力，在决策群体比群体成员谁拥有较少的广泛共享信息。这项研究将为决策群体中与分布式信息相关的过程和问题提供新的见解。更好地了解决策小组所面临的问题将有助于制定今后克服这些问题的方法。该研究还有助于NSF的知识和分布式智能（KDI）计划的知识网络重点。

A fundamental problem facing most real-world decision-making groups is the uneven distribution of decision-relevant information among members. Due to differences in day-to-day experience, formal training, and work roles, some group members frequently encounter a certain amount of decision-relevant information that others in the group do not possess. This uniquely held knowledge is referred to as unshared information, and stands in contrast to shared information that many group members hold. Despite the potential value of this unshared information, past research has consistently shown that groups tend to make decisions that are more consistent with the implications of their shared rather than their unshared information. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the proposition that group members who possess more widely shared information actually have greater influence in decision making groups than do group members who possess less widely shared information. The research will provide new insight into the processes and problems associated with distributed information in decision-making groups. A better understanding of the problems faced by decision-making groups will facilitate the development of methods for overcoming those problems in the future. The research also contributes to the Knowledge Networking focus of NSF's Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) initiative.