In the process of conducting socio-psychological observations, it was repeatedly proved that group decision-making methods in practice turned out to be more effective than those that were taken individually. Methods of making group decisions today are used in many areas of public life.
Group Solution Phenomenon
For the first time, experiments with such a socio-psychological phenomenon as a group decision were conducted in the USA during the Second World War. Then the industry was faced with the task of changing the attitude of customers to certain food products and, in particular, offal, which they tried to replace meat. The experiment involved several groups of housewives. One group only lectured on the benefits of this type of product and the desirability of acquiring offal instead of meat; in several other groups discussions and discussions were held in which all members of the group participated. After some time, it turned out that in the first group, the opinion about the proposed new products changed only by 3%, while in the remaining groups the loyalty to offal increased by 32%.
Psychologists who studied this phenomenon explained this phenomenon by the fact that passive discussion participants from the first group made each decision independently, without social group support and based only on their past experience. The members of the group discussions felt responsible for making a common decision, and this weakened the inertia of thinking and resistance to innovation. When everyone saw that the other members of the group were also inclined in favor of a certain decision, this strengthened his own position. This decision was not imposed and that is why it was adopted by the group.