When Group Composition Changes : Group Accommodation and Informationally Diverse Newcomers

In a 2 by 2 experimental design, we tested whether the acceptance of new group members depended on two newcomer characteristics; (1) the future prospects of a newcomer (whether a newcomer becomes a permanent member of the group or only remains temporarily within the group) and (2) on the kind of information that a newcomer possesses (unique vs. similar information than the rest of the group). Our preliminary results show that groups accommodate more effectively to (e.g., are more accepting of, feel more committed to and experience less conflict with) temporary newcomers who possess unique information about the group task than to permanent newcomers with unique information. We explain our findings by arguing that temporary newcomers are more likely to be seen as outgroup members than permanent newcomers. Groups are generally more willing to accept unique opinions of outgroup members than diverging perspectives of ingroup members (Phillips, 2003)