Group Performance Depends on the Majority Rule

Some group decisions require a two-thirds or three-quarters majority of the people voting; others require only a simple majority. Does the accuracy of a group's decision making depend on which majority rule is used? A signal detection theory analysis was used to answer this question. Each membe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychological science Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. 456 - 463
Main Authors Sorkin, Robert D., West, Ryan, Robinson, Donald E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Blackwell Publishing 01.11.1998
SAGE Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Decision making
Economic theory
False alarms
Group dynamics
Group performance
Group size
Majority rule
Mathematical theorems
Normativity
Signal detection
Signal detection theory
Voting paradox
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Some group decisions require a two-thirds or three-quarters majority of the people voting; others require only a simple majority. Does the accuracy of a group's decision making depend on which majority rule is used? A signal detection theory analysis was used to answer this question. Each member of a group was presented with a noisy display of either a signal or a nonsignal, and then each member cast a yes or no vote for the existence of a signal. The group decision was determined by a majority rule of the members' votes. Normative groups and groups of 5 or 7 people exhibited the same behavior: Performance was best when the group used a simple-majority rule and decreased when the group used more stringent rules. The worst performance was produced by a unanimous rule. Some group members adopted more liberal response criteria when the majority rule was made more stringent.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1111/1467-9280.00085