How to Avert a Disastrous Group Decision

Published 10 February 2020 by George Wu, John P. and Lillian A. Gould Professor of Behavioral Science at Chicago Booth, reporting his own crowdsourced experiment posted 2 October 2019 and closed 22 October 2019 with 56 responses rated 482 times on a one to seven scale, average rating 3.73. Coded by target, addressing the group scored 4.08 against 3.48 for approaching the individual and 2.93 for going to the boss; coded by content, asking questions scored 4.11 against 3.77 for making an argument and 2.93 for seeking cover; coded by tone, subtle responses scored 4.26 against 3.70 for direct. It sets out three prevention moves from Hastie and Sunstein: prime critical thinking by naming dissent as expected before the discussion, train leaders to self-silence, and build in devil's advocates.