Blackwell Reference Online

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When a decision-making group comes into discussion intending to choose among a set of possible courses of action, any disagreement among the members of the group regarding the best option normally results in some form of social influence. We assume that group members enter discussion having formulated a “pre-discussion preference” for a particular option, that these members leave discussion with a “post-discussion preference” among the options, and that the group as a whole reaches a decision about the best option. Social influence occurs when there is a difference between individual member pre-discussion and post-discussion preferences and/or when the group decision differs from what would be predicted based on the members’ pre-discussion preferences (→  Attitudes ; Persuasion ). Research relevant to social influence within groups has a long history. In fact, perhaps the earliest quantitative research (→  Quantitative Methodology ) study published in a speech communication journal examined the process of preference convergence due to group discussion ( Simpson 1939 ). Although conducted in relatively unrealistic settings in which aggregates of research participants only voiced judgments in one another's presence, two early studies of visual perception deserve special note. Sherif (1935) placed participants in an inherently ambiguous circumstance, and observed that voiced comments ... log in or subscribe to read full text