Risk and conservatism in group decision-making

Recent research has indicated that groups tend to accept greater risk in pursuing a desirable outcome than do their individual members. By demonstrating that risk-takers are viewed more favorably than risk-rejectors, the studies reported here provide evidence that this group shift toward risk is induced by a cultural value for risk. Further, the value for risk appears to mediate this risk shift by biasing arguments toward the risky alternative course of action, rather than by an image-maintenance mechanism. Groups are also found in the present studies to have greater pessimism than individuals about the likelihood of success of the risky alternative, a factor that could exert a “conservative” influence on group decisions. Since conservative shifts can also be induced by introducing conflicting moral values into the decisions and by extending the consequences of possible failure to individuals not involved in the decision making, it is suggested that greater caution is warranted in extending the results of the laboratory risk-shift studies to complex decision-making contexts.