Abstract
Group decision making should be particularly beneficial when group members share unique information, because then a group can make a better decision than each group member alone. This study examined how elementary-school children share unique information during group decision making. Seventy-nine groups of 3 same-sex and same-age 7- and 9-year-old children (N = 237) had to decide which 1 of 2 hypothetical candidates should play the lead role in a school musical. When information was unshared, group members had to exchange their uniquely held information to identify the best candidate. Only a minority of groups picked the best candidate when information was unshared. Yet, groups of 7-year-old children were better at identifying the best candidate and were less likely to focus on the discussion of shared information than groups of 9-year-olds. These findings are interpreted with reference to processes underlying information sharing in groups, namely collective information sampling, preference-consistent evaluation, and collaborative inhibition/intersubjectivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
DOI
10.1037/a0037144
Publication Date
2014-08-01
Publication Title
Developmental Psychology
Volume
50
Issue
8
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
ISSN
1939-0599
Embargo Period
2024-11-22
First Page
2105
Last Page
2114
Recommended Citation
Gummerum, M., Leman, P., & Hollins, T. (2014) 'How do children share information in groups?', Developmental Psychology, 50(8), pp. 2105-2114. American Psychological Association (APA): Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037144
