Us and them

1. Us and them IMD09120: Collaborative Media Brian Davison 2011/12

2. Us and them • Social identity • Distance • Decision making • Effects of media choice • Summary Lumet, S (1957) 12 Angry Men

3. Impression management • How we manipulate how others see us • Requires seeing ourselves from the viewpoint of others • Major components (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) • Behaviour matching, e.g. level of self-disclosure • Conformity to social situational norms, by self-monitoring • Ingratiation - showing appreciation, or flattery • Showing consistency in beliefs and behaviour • Consistency in verbal and non-verbal behaviour

4. Social identity • Tajfel, 1974 • Attempt to understand discrimination • 3 main factors: • the extent to which individuals identify with an ingroup to internalize that group membership as an aspect of their self-concept • the extent to which the prevailing context provides ground for comparison between groups • the perceived relevance of the comparison group, which itself will be shaped by the relative and absolute status of the ingroup • Self/group-serving bias

5. Distance • Psychological/social distance from oneself • Several “personal selves” corresponding to widening group belonging Increasing social distance

6. Bradner and Mark (2002) • Effects of perceived geographic distance • 98 student participants and a confederate in a decision-making task • Told other person either in the same city or 3000 miles away • In reality just next door • Video-conferencing and instant messaging • Confederate attempted to change the participant’s rankings of value of different items

7. Subjects’ drawings of setup

8. In technical terminology... • Variables (or factors) • Quantities that can have different values • Levels • The different values a variable can take • Condition • One combination of variables • Hypothesis • A suggested relationship between variables • Null hypothesis • The suggestion that any observed variation is the result of chance

9. Desert survival task • The group has survived a plane crash in a desert • A set of items are available, but only one can be kept • The task is to decide which one • In the experiment: • Participant ranks items • Confederate’s equivalent list is determined by an algorithm • Confederate tries to persuade the participant to change the order • Participant submits final ranking • High correlation between initial and final rankings = low persuasion

10. Results The mean correlation between subjects’ first and second responses was r = .49 (sd = .51) in the Distant city condition, and r = .35 (sd = .51) in the Same city condition. An ANOVA showed that this difference is significant (F (1, 94) = 4.14, p<.05). No effect for media (F(1,94)=1.66, p<.21), or interaction was found (F(1,94)=.04, p<.85). Thus, those in the Same city condition were more persuaded by the confederate than those in the Distant city condition.

11. Group decision-making • Imagine you have a serious illness which is extremely unpleasant but not life-threatening • A new but risky cure is available. If it works your quality of life is restored but there is a risk of death. • What is the lowest survival rate you would accept from the treatment?

12. The risky-shift effect • There is clear evidence that groups will take greater risks than individuals (Stoner, 1961) • The size of the risk is greater than the mean of the group’s judgement • Explanations • the risky leader hypothesis • diffusion of responsibility

13. Groupthink When concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. Janis (1971)

14. The Challenger disaster • NASA: management • Morton Thiokol: engineers • Temperature below previous levels • Fears over safety of o-ring seals

15. The NASA decision

16. Short break

17. Effects of media choice • Decision quality? • Satisfaction? • Confidence in decision? • Decision Support Systems • DSS, GDSS, DGDSS, CGDSS • Power, 2007

18. Media richness theory • Daft & Lengel, 1984 • Hierarchy defined by four criteria: • the availability of instant feedback • the capacity of the medium to transmit multiple cues such as body language, voice tone, and inflection • the use of natural language • the personal focus of the medium • Hypothesis: some media are more suitable for certain tasks Medium Richness Highest Face to face Telephone High Written (personal) Moderate Written (formal) Low Numeric (formal) Lowest

19. CMC and decision making • Typical study: Sumner and Hostetler (2000) • Students using computer conferencing (email) or face-to-face meetings to complete a systems analysis project • Computer condition • better decisions: broader participation, wider range of opinions, greater analysis, greater psychological distance • but greater time to arrive at a decision

20. Anonymity • Postmes and Lea (2000) • Meta-analysis of 12 independent studies • Only reliable effect of anonymity is to lead to more contributions, especially critical ones • Argue that performance in decision-making depends on social context and relevant social norms as well as on system characteristics such as anonymity

21. Fundamental attribution error • People over-estimate the effect of personal qualities in others • ie others are simplified • People over-estimate the effect of context on self • ie the self is complex • Spotlight effect • Confirmation bias • Self-serving bias

22. Attribution • Walther & Bazarova, 2007 • Members of distributed groups eschewed personal responsibility and blamed partners. • Unseen, unknown, remote partners in short-term distributed groups become scapegoats for individuals’ own performance decrements.

23. Judgment of quality of the group’s decisions • Roch and Ayman (2005) • 3 person student groups using chat or FtF • No significant difference between the two conditions in the performance of the group • But CMC groups were better judges of whether they had made the right decisions • Because they could focus more on the content of message without being distracted?

24. Connell et al. (2001) • ‘Naturalistic’ lab study of pairs of people and field study • Effect of media richness • Degree of social presence / satisfaction • Perceptions of behaving naturally and intentionally • both self and others

25. Media and hypotheses • Face-to-face (FTF) • Computer-mediated (CMC) - chat and email • Telephone • Self-awareness/self monitoring • Facilitated by CMC? • Inhibition/conformity to norms • Less inhibited in CMC? • Responsiveness (awareness of others’ reactions) • Influenced by range of non-verbal cues and delays

26. Experiment • 280 undergraduate students • Divided into pairs • ‘Get acquainted’ prior to group discussion • FTF, chat and telephone conditions • Variables: • Communications medium – independent variable • Intentionality – dependent variable • Sincerity– dependent variable • Satisfaction – dependent variable

27. Intentionality, sincerity and satisfaction • Post-experimental questions: • To what extent did you act the way you intended to? • To what extent did you act like yourself, the way you really are, with each of your conversation partners? • How satisfied are you with the way that you acted during each conversation? • Versions of Q1 & Q2 about perceptions of partner

28. Results

29. Field survey • Did these results generalise to real life? • What would be the effects of differential power? • Higher powered people tend to be less ingratiating and feel greater freedom to be themselves

30. Method & results • 142 employees of a public utility company • Similar questions in relation to FTF, email and telephone • Interactions with supervisors, peers and subordinates • Similar results to lab experiment, but less pronounced • Power relationships did NOT make a difference

31. Field study results

32. Summary • Baltes et al. 2002 • 22 published & 5 unpublished studies • Outcome criteria • Anonymity • Time to decision • Limited/unlimited discussion • Group size • Task type • Face to face condition is always preferable • Mediated conditions can be more or less detrimental • The most successful mediated conditions are those least likely to occur in organisations: anonymous and unlimited