Generating agreement in computer-mediated groups

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Abstract

Agreement is an important social outcome often poorly handled by computer-mediated groups, presumably because the computer cannot transmit the necessary rich information. A recently proposed cognitive model suggests richness is not the key to social agreement and that group agreement can be generated by the exchange of anonymous, lean text information across a computer network. This experiment investigates this theory. Self-chosen groups of 5 completed three answer rounds on limited choice problems while exchanging a few characters of position information. These asynchronous, anonymous computer-mediated groups generated agreement without any rich information exchange. The key software design criteria for enacting agreement is proposed to be not richness but dynamic many-to-many linkage. The resulting "electronic voting" may be as different from traditional voting as e-mail is from traditional mail. It may also imply a new generation of groupware that recognizes social influence.

Identifier

0035486403 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Small Group Research

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640103200506

ISSN

10464964

First Page

625

Last Page

665

Issue

5

Volume

32

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