The impact of information distribution, ownership, and discussion on group member judgment: The differential cue weighting model

Abstract

It is often assumed that groups or teams pool knowledge and consider more information than individuals. However, numerous group decision-making studies have found that groups tend to focus on information that members had in common before group discussion instead of exchanging members’ unique information. This paper extends previous research and introduces the differential cue weighting (DCW) model to explain how group members form and revise their judgments during group discussion. It is proposed that information cues are differentially weighted depending on the combination of three factors: the cue’s initial distribution, its ownership by the member, and its addition to group discussion. An empirical study provides support for the DCW model, demonstrating that, for individual judgment, unique information can be just as influential as common information, but only for the member who contributed it to discussion.