31247 Chap.7 Biases in Group Decision-Making
Biases in Group Decision-Making
How groups go wrong
Week 4 names the biases that distort decisions: confirmation, anchoring and framing, which individuals bring into a group, and groupthink, social loafing, polarisation and escalation of commitment, which appear when people decide together.
Spotting them in your own team
Each bias has a symptom you can observe in a project and a counter-move that reduces it.
The reflection in Assignment 3 rewards students who can name a bias, point to the dated moment it appeared, and say what they would do differently.
Individual and group biases
Confirmation, anchoring and framing are biases each person carries into a meeting, while groupthink, social loafing, polarisation and escalation of commitment arise from the group itself.
The tutorial applies these ideas to hospital governance and clinical teams, but every one of them can be observed in a student project group across a session.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Bias as irrational judgement
- 02
Confirmation, anchoring and framing
- 03
Groupthink and its remedies
- 04
Social loafing and identifiability
- 05
Group polarisation, risky and cautious shifts
- 06
Escalation of commitment
Worked example · free
Measure the shift in a group decision
- 1Add the individual ratings: 4 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 5 = 23.
- 1Divide by the five members: 23 ÷ 5 = 4.6.
- 1Compare with the group decision: 6 is further towards the bold end than 4.6.
- 1Name it: a group decision more extreme than its members’ starting average, in the risky direction, is a risky shift, a form of group polarisation.
Key terms
- Groupthink
- A group’s tendency to avoid conflict and agree, so that a shared view hardens without challenge.
- Social Loafing
- Reduced effort by group members whose individual contribution cannot be identified.
- Group Polarisation
- A group decision that is more extreme than the starting positions of its members.
- Escalation of Commitment
- Continuing to invest in a course of action after evidence shows it is failing.
- Anchoring Bias
- Building a judgement around the first piece of information received.
Biases in Group Decision-Making FAQ
What is the difference between groupthink and polarisation?
Groupthink is about agreement: members suppress doubts to keep harmony. Polarisation is about direction: the group ends up more extreme than its members began, either riskier or more cautious. A group can show both at once.
How can a team reduce social loafing?
The reading suggests making each member’s contribution identifiable, keeping groups small, building cohesion and allowing some choice of task. It also warns that more cohesion raises the risk of groupthink, so the remedies need balancing.
Why does escalation of commitment happen?
Groups keep investing after poor results especially when the first failure can be blamed on outside events and when the decision feels important. Agreeing a stopping test in advance, and costing what withdrawal would mean, both help.
What is anchoring bias?
It is the tendency to build a conclusion around the first piece of information received and to resist alternatives. In a group, the first estimate or idea spoken aloud often sets the range for everyone else, which is why collecting views in writing first helps.
How does the reflection use these biases?
The reflection rubric rewards depth and personal insight. Naming a bias earns little on its own; tie it to a dated journal entry, explain how it affected a decision, and say what you did or would now do differently.
What is the difference between a risky shift and a cautious shift?
Both are forms of group polarisation. In a risky shift the group becomes bolder than its members’ average starting position; in a cautious shift it becomes more risk-averse. In both, the group’s decision is more extreme than the members began.
Assessment move
Look back over your work log and find one decision that each of three biases might have touched. Write a sentence of evidence and a counter-move for each. Before your next group decision, collect everyone’s view in writing first. Ask Sia to suggest which bias best explains a meeting you found frustrating, then check the suggestion against what actually happened.
Return to this list when you draft the reflection; it gives you concepts to apply.
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