Group Decision-making: Consensus Rule Versus Majority Rule

Previously, in the field to solve complex problems, we had found that majority rule (MR) decision-making out-performed consensus rule (CR) by making decisions that were quicker, more practical, and of better quality. This is an important finding for businesses. In the laboratory, we had found consistent support for the speed of making decisions under majority rules, but we subsequently failed to replicate the findings about practicality and quality with three-person groups in the laboratory. We attributed the problem to a lack of conflict experienced in the MR groups that we had attempted to generate but which did not materialize. The literature agreed with us that it was difficult to get debate in three-person groups. In an effort to increase debate among group members in the MR condition, in the present research, we used from three to seven- person groups and the Wason Selection Task. We additionally began using improved psycho-physiological instrumentation to measure electrodermal activity, skin temperature and body movement.