Predecisional information seeking and subsequent conformity in the social influence process

Related information seeking and subsequent conforming behavior to the effects of motivational orientation (cooperative or competitive), task uncertainty, and the reinforcement value of information. 144 male and female undergraduates participated in groups of 3 in a 2-choice probability-learning task. Ss had the opportunity to seek the responses of 2 other Ss prior to making a final choice. The dependent variables were the number of information-seeking responses and the subsequent conformity. Results indicate that (a) Ss with a cooperative orientation sought significantly more information from their coworkers than did competitively oriented Ss, (b) the amount of search was inversely related to the utility of the information received over time, (c) the nature of the information received affected conformity across all conditions, and (d) the response proportions of cooperatively oriented Ss were higher than competitively oriented Ss under highly uncertain conditions but did not differ under low uncertain conditions. Results are discussed in a decision-making-reinforcement framework. The effects that social psychological variables have in modifying information-seeking and conformity responses are noted. (23 ref.)