Defective Group Decision Making and Problem Solving

Groupthink: Critical Thinking in Suspended Animation

Groupthink: A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply in a cohesive ingroup, when the members' goal for maintaining unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.

Groupthink is caused by excessive cohesiveness and a pressure to present a united front to those outside the group.

Coping with IO

Identifying Groupthink: Main Symptoms

Overestimation of the group's power and morality: Arrogance- When you make a decision because you believe your solution is the best.

Closed-Mindedness: Clinging to Assumptions- When you discount negative information that might make your group rethink your group's assumptions.

Pressures Towards Uniformity: Presenting a United Front-Trying to maintain the same opinion throughout the group.

Information Overload:

Confirmation Bias

• Screen the information: screening info, much like you would phone calls, and simply choosing to ignore much of the extra info is one easy way to cope with IO.
• Shutting off technology: IO is a largely a problem of too much openness in a system.
• Specializing: knowing more and more about less and less.
• Becoming selective: They should choose selectively on the basis of group priorities and goals.
• Limiting the search: know when enough is enough; allow time to evaluate the new information.
• Narrowing the search: Use databases and find patterns when searching for information.

Information Overload

Information Underload

Information Overload: occurs when the rate of information flow into a system and/or the complexity of that information exceed the system's processing capacity.

There are three main consequences to information overload.

1) Critical thinking impairment- gathering vast quantities of information can increase a group's confidence in its decisions but may actually decrease the accuracy of those decisions.

2) Indecisiveness- the technology that has ushered in the new information age sped up almost everything enormously, but a group's ability to make decisions is slowed.

3) Inattention- The mega-mountains of information competing for an individual's attention makes focusing on one idea, concept, or problem extremely difficult.

The main causes of Information Underload are:

• an individual member sits on critical information and does not share it with the rest of the group
• too much closedness in a system

Information Underload: refers to an insufficient amount of information available for decision-making purposes.

Solution: The general solution is greater openness within lines of communication within the group.

• finding the balance between too little and too much information

Video on Information Underload

Information Underload

Preventing Groupthink

1. Members must recognize the problem of groupthink as it begins to become a problem.

2. The group must minimize status differences, everyone is equal in terms of membership.

3. Seeking information that challenges a possible concurrence

Information Overload

Activity

Groupthink is more likely to occur when there is no structural method in place for evaluating alternative ideas for discussion.

Ways to prevent this from happening are...

1. Assign 1 or 2 people to ask questions all the time challenging the group's opinion.

2. Look at the counterarguments for the group's opinion.

3. Have someone remind the group that there could be errors in their decision making.

Collective Inferential Error: Uncritical Thinking

Mindsets cont.

On the next slide, pick an ice cream flavor and raise your hand when you have chosen which flavor you want.

Inferences: conclusions about the unknown based on what is known

Collective inferential error: inferential errors that are magnified within a group

Specific Sources of Inferential Errors

• Distorting the Facts: inferences drawn are most likely erroneous. If the unrepresentative example is vivid, then the potential for inferential error is magnified.
• Covariation: Our tendency to draw causation (X causes Y) from mere correlation (X and Y occur together).
• Correlation: consistent relationship between two or more variables.

Error Correction

• Validity of inferences carefully examined
• Inferences are grounded in valid/plentiful info
• One group member exerts influence to guide group to higher-quality decisions

Conclusion

• False Dichotomy: is the tendency to view the world in terms of only two opposing possibilities when other possibilities are available. AKA black and white thinking.

An example could be "you're either with us or against us!" Put in this way there is there no possible third choice, even though neutrality could be a possibility.

Critical Thinking Frozen Solid

Mindsets

Combating Confirmation Bias & False Dichotomies

Introduction

Solution for Confirmation Bias:

1) Seek disconfirming information and evidence.

2) Vigorously present disconfirming evidence to the group.

3) Play devil's advocate.

4) Gather allies to help challenge confirmation bias.

Solution for False Dichotomies:

1) Be suspicious of absolutes!

-look for more than just two possibilities

2) Employ language of provisionalism.

-use terms such as sometimes, mostly, usually, or rarely, and avoid using terms such as always, never, or impossible.

Mindsets: psychological and cognitive predispositions to see the world in a particular way.

• Confirmation bias: our strong tendency to seek and attend to information that confirms our beliefs and attitudes and to ignore information that contradicts our currently held beliefs and attitudes.
• Rationalization of disconfirmation: the invention of superficial, even glib alternative explanations for information that contradicts a belief.

Defective Decision Making and Problem Solving are very common in all groups. Sometimes it just can not be avoided. However, we have given you the skills to combat it. You have learned to:

1) Analyze the adverse effects of excessive or insufficient information quantity on group decision-making and problem solving

2) Explain the role of mindsets in defective decision-making/ problem solving.

3) Explore the contribution of collective inferential error to defective decision-making/ problem solving.

4) Discuss the troublesome decision-making problem of group polarization.

5) Describe and analyze groupthink as an ineffective group decision-making process.

• The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore sources of defective group decision making and problem solving.

• Chapter explores ways in which small groups manifest defective critical thinking.

Key Words

Steps to Combating Group Polarization

Group Polarization:

Extremely Uncritical Thinking

• Decision: requires a choice between two or more alternatives.

• Problem Solving: Necessitates decision making, but not all decision making involves a problem to be solved.

• Critical thinking: requires group members to analyze and evaluate ideas and information in order to reach sound judgements and conclusions.

1. Encourage a wide range of views on issues to be discussed in the group

2. Provide well-reasoned and researched material in written or oral form to group members for serious discussion and consideration.

3. Have a facilitator act as a devil's advocate.

4. Discuss issues openly before taking a firm position.

Group polarization: the group tendency to make a decision after discussion that is more extreme, either riskier or more cautious, than the initial preference of group members.

• Groups tend to polarize decision making if there is a clear majority leaning one way.

Primary Explanations

Social comparison (normative influence): an individual uses the group norm regarding risk-taking or caution as a point of reference, the individual is inclined to shift position after group discussion, to conform to perceived expectations of the group.

Persuasive argumentation (informational influence): Individuals in a group will move towards either greater risk or caution when exposed to arguments and information that were not available to members when they made their initial decisions.

Defective Group Decision Making and Problem Solving