Risky and cautious shifts in group decisions: The influence of widely held values

Abstract

An extensive series of studies has shown that group decisions on life-situation items involving a risky dimension are significantly different from the average of the initial individual decisions of the members of the group. The present study investigates the possibility that widely held values and individuals' perceptions of their own riskiness relative to “other people like them” are important factors in individual and group decisions on life-situation items. Initial individual decisions on the items are found to be consistent with widely held values as assessed on a separate instrument. Significant differences between individuals' perceptions of their own and others' riskiness are also found. The life-situation items were divided into two types of items, on the bases of widely held values and the subjects' perceptions of their own relative riskiness. For items on which the widely held values favored the risky alternative and on which subjects considered themselves relatively risky, unanimous group decisions were more risky than the average of the initial individual decisons. The group decisions tended to be more cautious on items for which widely held values favored the cautious alternative and on which subjects considered themselves relatively cautious. The results are interpreted as supporting both the Nordhøy-Marquis general values hypothesis and the Brown “value to being relatively risky or relatively cautious” hypothesis.