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Hidden Consequences of the Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions and the Quality of Group Decision Making

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dc.contributor.authorGoncalo, Jack
dc.contributor.authorDuguid, Michelle M.
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-17T17:22:15Z
dc.date.available2020-11-17T17:22:15Z
dc.date.issued2008-02-21
dc.description.abstractA long stream of research in attribution theory suggests that groups are biased toward attributing their success to factors that are internal to their group. However, the existing research has confounded two types of attributions that are both internal to the group, but theoretically distinct: (1) Attributions that differentiate between the contributions made by each individual group member and (2) attributions that focus on the group as a whole. This dichotomy is important because, drawing on theories of social influence, we predict that different types of attributions will have different consequences for the quality of group decision making. In experiment 1, individually focused attributions for past success caused groups to consider more divergent alternatives prior to making a shared decision. In experiment 2, individually focused attributions for past success facilitated the sharing of unique information and improved decision accuracy. These findings suggest that the group serving tendency to internalize success may have important consequences for group performance that have not yet been considered in current research.
dc.description.legacydownloadsGoncalo3_Hidden_Consequences.pdf: 2136 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.
dc.identifier.other441918
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/75628
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.rightsRequired Publisher Statement: The final paper is forthcoming in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, published by Elsevier.
dc.subjectGroup-serving bias
dc.subjectcausal attribution
dc.subjectdivergent thinking
dc.subjectdecision making
dc.subjectknowledge exchange
dc.titleHidden Consequences of the Group Serving Bias: Causal Attributions and the Quality of Group Decision Making
dc.typearticle
local.authorAffiliationGoncalo, Jack: jag97@cornell.edu Cornell University
local.authorAffiliationDuguid, Michelle M.: mmd49@cornell.edu Cornell University

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