Working Paper: NBER ID: w7909
Authors: Alan S. Blinder; John Morgan
Abstract: Two laboratory experiments - one a statistical urn problem, the other a monetary policy experiment - were run to test the commonly-believed hypothesis that groups make decisions more slowly than individuals do. Surprisingly, this turns out not to be true there is no significant difference in average decision lags. Furthermore, and also surprisingly, there is no significant difference in the decision lag when groups decisions are made by majority rule versus when they are made under a unanimity requirement. In addition, group decisions are on average superior to individual decisions. The results are strikingly similar across the two experiments.
Keywords: group decision-making; individual decision-making; experimental economics
JEL Codes: E5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| group decision-making speed (D70) | individual decision-making speed (D91) |
| group decision quality (D70) | individual decision quality (D80) |
| group decision-making speed (D70) | group decision quality (D70) |
| majority rule group decision-making (D70) | unanimity requirement group decision-making (D70) |