James Henry Davis, Ph.D. - US grants

9309405 Davis This research concerns the effectiveness of decision making by small groups such as committees and panels. Enhancing the productivity of groups often involves encouraging consensus, promoting discussion, publicizing member views, etc. The validity and efficiency of such measures have rarely been studied and unanticipated side-effects and not been considered. The empirical research in this project involves an orderly assessment of the influence of various procedural mechanisms and how they effect the final outcomes or decisions of the group. The decisions at issue will be ordinary judgments similar to those expected of citizens serving on a civil jury or schoolboard. Although the experimental results should assist in achieving of long-term goal of improving group efficiency and accuracy, a more basic research issue is how and why the various procedural mechanisms work as they do. A formal model is being developed to predict group consensus on quantitative judgments. The data from the experiments will be used to test the model and guide its further development. The model should provide additional insight into group decision processes and its enhancement. ***

This is a collaborative proposal with Dr. Julie Irwin of New York University (SBR 9510914). The PIs propose to test a new model (the social judgment scheme model) of group decision making. This model pertains to decisions concerning continuous variables such as money or other quantities. In the experiments to be performed by the PIs, the issues to be decided will include decisions about public hazards that inspire the feeling of dread. The PIs will manipulate a number of procedural aspects of mock panels or committees in order to ascertain the influence of these factors. Such factors will include the group decision rule (e.g., unanimity or majority), group size, accountability of the group to other constituencies, and framing.