For my ethics in society class this week we watched a Ted Talk about how group decision making can go terribly wrong, and that made me think about how groups can make decisions effectively without things going awry. The video stated that there has been research that shows group decisions can either be helped or hindered by independent thinking. It can be hindered by peer pressure and social media interfering and making people change their standpoints on certain issues and decisions. It can help because groups can explain their thinking, share knowledge, and come up with new and improved ideas. So is it a good thing or a bad thing?

It can be both! In this Ted Talk they did an experiment with individual thinking and then group thinking. They had individuals come up with answers to a few questions and then get into groups to see what they came up with. They found that averaging the groups answer was more correct than averaging all of the individual answers.

Next they experimented if this could also help make social and political decisions rather than decisions on random things, like how tall the Eiffel Tower is. In this experiment they gave people moral dilemmas about things we may have to decide in the near future. They had people decide individually again and then get together in groups to discuss. This task was more challenging because it has to do with morality. One person may believe that something is completely wrong (rated a 0) while someone else in the same room, or same group, may believe that it is completely right (rated a 10). This makes group tasks about morality much more difficult. They found that some groups reached an answer while others did not. This is because people with extreme opinions are often more confident in their answers, while people who don't have extreme opinions can be swayed one way or another with a little push because they are unsure of their answers. They also described another area of people with strong opinions who are also unsure because they believe that both sides have valid arguments even though they may be set on one side. Groups with people that have this opinion were found to reach a consensus more often. This is great information to know because groups with people who think like this can most often make effective decisions, but many times you aren't able to choose the group you need to work with. Important decisions must be made in job settings where often times not everyone will get along or agree with each other.

I like that Sigman and Ariely did these experiments for their Ted Talk because it brought to my attention how important group decisions can actually be and also how difficult they can be. Most people have to make group decisions at some point in their lifetime so I think this is important information to know.

Overall, group decisions are a difficult task which is proven almost everyday through politics, but there are other areas where group tasks come in. Things as small as a classroom discussion or things a little more meaningful like a panel of jurors. Group decisions come into play more often than we think they do and it is important to have some knowledge on them.

Sigman, M. and Ariely, D. (2107). How Can Groups Make Good Decisions? (link)

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