Differential Access to Information and Anticipated Group Interaction: Impact on Individual Reasoning

Two studies examined the impact of relative differences in access to information and anticipated group interaction on individual reasoning. On 2 different reasoning tasks ( P. C. Wason's [1966 ] selection task and D. Kahneman & A. Tversky's [1973 ] lawyer-engineer problem), participant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2005-04, Vol.88 (4), p.619-631
Main Authors: Augustinova, Maria, Oberlé, Dominique, Stasser, Garold L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to Information
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive science
Decision Making
Expectations
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Group Dynamics
Group Processes
Human
Humans
Individuals
Information
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Motivation
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reasoning
Social Cognition
Social Comparison
Social Environment
Social Influences
Social Interaction
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
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Summary:Two studies examined the impact of relative differences in access to information and anticipated group interaction on individual reasoning. On 2 different reasoning tasks ( P. C. Wason's [1966 ] selection task and D. Kahneman & A. Tversky's [1973 ] lawyer-engineer problem), participants sensing that they knew more in anticipation of group interaction or knew less when not anticipating interaction were less susceptible to typical cognitive biases demonstrated by these tasks. Study 2 also showed that the effect of these social contexts was contingent on the task presentation format. Thus, knowing more in anticipation of group interaction and knowing less when not anticipating group interaction seemingly compensated for task features that enhance suboptimal reasoning strategies. These results illustrate the importance of the social context in which reasoning is situated and are discussed in terms of cognitive tuning, social comparison, and social motivations.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.88.4.619