Effects of Dissent and Interpersonal Liking on Group Decision Making

<p>Team building interventions often focus on improving interpersonal relationships between team members. However, it is still unclear whether interpersonal liking is always desirable, e.g., in order to use divergent opinions (dissent) for high quality decisions. Inconsistent results of existing research are integrated into a process model based on the assumptions of limited cognitive capacity and the motive for cognitive consistency. Accordingly, contrary effects of liking on dissent and decision making are assumed: On the one hand, liking inhibits a manifestation of latent dissent because members perceive the other s opinion consistent with their needs and expectations as more similar to their own (Underestimating Dissent) and are reluctant to express dissent in an explicit way (Self Censoring). On the other hand, liking promotes a differentiated view of the other s opinion (Attending to Opinion). When dissent becomes manifest, liking triggers argumentation for one s own opinion to convince the other (Persuasion) and a deeper analysis of the dissenting opinion because it is inconsistent with expectations (Processing Dissent). The interplay of these processes has been and will be tested in eight experiments with participants who anticipate or are involved in dyadic decision making. The different input and process variables of the model are successively manipulated.</p>
<p>Two of the eight experiments were financially supported by the European Association for Experimental Social Psychology (EAESP). For five experiments, funds ("Sachbeihilfe") were applied at the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG).</p>