Group discussion and the stingy shift

The cultural value explanation of the risky shift predicts that group decisions should generally advocate more socially desirable action than previous individual decisions even when the decisions in question do not involve the risk-caution dimension. In addition, this theory holds that this "social desirability" shift should be maintained on individual decisions that follow the group decision. These predictions were tested by comparing group and individual decisions by 99 female undergraduates concerning donations to the Iowa Bengali Relief Committee. Contrary to these predictions, group decisions were significantly less generous than individual decisions despite the fact that Ss indicated that they felt generosity to be socially desirable. Moreover, this effect obtained regardless of whether the individual decision preceded or followed the group decision. Explanations for this outcome involving responsibility diffusion and reluctance to coerce others to emit costly responses were considered. (24 ref)