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Individual Postdecision Processes in Group Settings
Author(s) -
Hammarberg Anders,
Svenson Ola
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00182
Subject(s) - psychology , consolidation (business) , attractiveness , social psychology , perception , group decision making , economics , accounting , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
In two experiments Differentiation and Consolidation Theory (Diff Con)(Svenson, 1992) was used to investigate individual postdecision making processes in three‐member groups. It was predicted that in groups in which the subjects preferred different alternatives (conflict groups), subjects would consolidate their own preferred alternative, and not the group’s final decision. A second hypothesis was that no consolidation would be indicated in groups in which all members preferred the same alternative (non‐conflict groups). The results showed that in conflict groups, the members who gave up their preferred alternative (minority members) consolidated their own preference, thereby significantly regretting the group decision. In contrast, members who got their own will through in the majority decision (majority members) showed no consolidation of the group decision. The corresponding pattern of results was replicated in a second experiment, using a different decision situation. The results indicated that perceptions of social support, agreement in a group and decreasing responsibility for a group’s decision, could all partly substitute consolidation by attractiveness restructuring.