Moving the Frame Forward: Hidden Profiles, group decision-making, and the role of Mental Simulation

Despite the ubiquity of group decision-making, research suggests that groups do not perform to their full potential in making decisions when information is distributed asymmetrically, and when certain biases in information exchange and processing are at work in the group. These asymmetric information conditions are known as Hidden Profiles (Stasser and Titus, 1985) and, despite a significant body of research, Hidden Profile decision tasks have proven robust to a range of interventions designed to improve group performance. Most interventions have been focused at the level of the group, however, some researchers suggest that effective interventions need to be capable of working at both the individual group member level, as well as the level of the group. The challenge taken up by this research is three-fold: (i) to expand our understanding of asymmetric information and the interactions of group members in Hidden Profile decision tasks; (ii) to consider whether the Individual Preference Effect (IPE), which has been shown to play a significant role in groups' failures to solve Hidden Profile decision tasks, manifests itself differently in men and women; and (iii) to test a mental simulation intervention designed to work at both the individual group member and group level, leading to improvements in both information exchange and decision quality. This research investigates these aspects of decision-making through one qualitative thematic analysis; three face-to-face group studies; three online individual decision-making studies and one meta-analysis. Results suggest a need to focus greater research attention on the role of the individual group member and interventions to overcome their initial suboptimal selection decisions. Furthermore, this research suggests that the IPE does indeed manifest differently for men and women. Finally, the mental simulation tested in this research proves to be a valuable new tool to improve individual and group decision-making in Hidden Profile decision tasks.