Mutual enhancement: Toward an understanding of the collective preference for shared information.

Abstract

Groups tend to discuss and repeat information known by all members (shared) more than they do information known by one member (unshared). One factor that may influence this effect is the tendency for members to positively evaluate one another when mentioning shared information. Three experiments demonstrated this mutual enhancement effect. Experiment I showed that mutual enhancement was related to participants' and their partners' exchanging the same pieces of information. Experiment 2 illustrated that mutual enhancement was not related to the extent that participants liked partners or saw them as having similar opinions. Experiment 3 showed mutual enhancement in face-to-face dyads that discussed shared information. A combined analysis across the 3 experiments showed the robustness of mutual enhancement. Implications of mutual enhancement for group discussion are considered.

Cites (4)

1. A theory of social comparison processes
   Festinger, Leon · 1954 · Human Relations
2. Pooling of Unshared Information in Group Decision Making: Biased Information Sampling During Discussion
   Stasser, Garold, Titus, William · 1985 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
3. Attitudes and Attitude Change
   Chaiken, S, Stangor, C · 1987 · Annual Review of Psychology
4. Discussion of shared and unshared information in decision-making groups.
   Larson, James R., Foster-Fishman, Pennie G., Keys, Christopher B. · 1994 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Show all 4 references

Cited by (10)

1. Teams in Organizations: From Input-Process-Output Models to IMOI Models
   Ilgen, Daniel R., Hollenbeck, John R., Johnson, Michael, Jundt, Dustin · 2005 · Annual Review of Psychology
2. Social Identity, Self-Categorization, and the Communication of Group Norms
   Hogg, Michael A., Reid, Scott A. · 2006 · Communication Theory
3. What Differences Make a Difference?: The Promise and Reality of Diverse Teams in Organizations
   Mannix, Elizabeth, Neale, Margaret A. · 2005 · Psychological Science in the Public Interest
4. Motivated Information Processing in Group Judgment and Decision Making
   De Dreu, Carsten K. W., Nijstad, Bernard A., van Knippenberg, Daan · 2008 · Personality and Social Psychology Review
5. Transactive Memory Systems in Organizations: Matching Tasks, Expertise, and People
   Brandon, David P., Hollingshead, Andrea B. · 2004 · Organization Science

See all 296