Management Papers
Title
The Cost of Collaboration: Why Joint Decision Making Exacerbates Rejection of Outside Information
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
2-17-2012
Publication Source
Psychological Science
Start Page
1
Last Page
6
DOI
0.1177/0956797611429132
Abstract
Prior investigators have asserted that certain group characteristics cause group members to disregard outside information and that this behavior leads to diminished performance. We demonstrate that the very process of making a judgment collaboratively rather than individually also contributes to such myopic underweighting of external viewpoints. Dyad members exposed to numerical judgments made by peers gave significantly less weight to those judgments than did individuals working alone. This difference in willingness to use peer input was mediated by the greater confidence that the dyad members reported in the accuracy of their own estimates. Furthermore, dyads were no better at judging the relative accuracy of their own estimates and the advisor’s estimates than individuals were. Our analyses demonstrate that, relative to individuals, dyads suffered an accuracy cost. Specifically, if dyad members had given as much weight to peer input as individuals working alone did, then their revised estimates would have been significantly more accurate.
Keywords
decision making, judgement, dyads, advice taking, egocentric discounting
Recommended Citation
Minson, J. A. (2012). The Cost of Collaboration: Why Joint Decision Making Exacerbates Rejection of Outside Information. Psychological Science, 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/0.1177/0956797611429132
Date Posted: 27 November 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.