Cooperation versus Competition Effects on Information Sharing and Us in Group Decision Making

Information processing in groups has long been seen as a cooperative process. In contrast with this assumption, group members were rarely found to behave cooperatively: They withhold unshared information and stick to initial incorrect decisions. In the present article, we examined how group members’ cooperative and competitive motives impact on group information processing and propose that information sharing and use in groups could be seen as strategic behaviour. We reviewed the latest developments in the literature investigating different forms of strategic information processing and their underlying mechanisms. This review suggests that explicit cooperative goals are needed for effective group decisionmaking.