Abstract
Information exchange is a crucial process in groups, but to date, no one has systematically examined how a group member’s relationship with a group can undermine this process. The current research examined whether disidentified group members (i.e., members who have a negative relationship with their group) strategically undermine the group outcome in information exchange. Disidentification has been found to predict negative group-directed behaviour, but at the same time disidentified members run the risk of being punished or excluded from the group when displaying destructive behaviour. In three studies we expected and found that disidentified group members subtly act against the interest of the group by withholding important private information, while at the same time they keep up appearances by sharing important information that is already known by the other group members. These findings stress the importance of taking a group member’s relationship with a group into account when considering the process of information exchange.
Highlights
Information exchange is a crucial process in groups [1,2,3]
We did not find support for Hypothesis 2a, that participants in the disidentification condition shared more important public information (M = 1.90, SD = 1.16), Strategic information exchange by disidentified group members compared to participants in the identification condition (M = 2.25, SD = 0.99), F(1, 53) = 1.36, p = .25, η2p =
There were no differences between the different types of information that participants in the identification condition withheld from the other group members
Summary
Information exchange is a crucial process in groups [1,2,3]. Technical, medical, or political decisions are made by groups [3,4]. Group members possess different pieces of important information that, if put together, increase the quality of any decision made by their group. The importance of open and honest information exchange where all group members share all the information they possess is obvious for achieving high quality decisions. What if some group members actively undermine the process of information exchange? The current research set out to investigate how a group member’s relationships with a group affects what type of information they share, withhold, falsify or destroy during information exchange
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