Group Versus Individual Decision Making: Effects of Accountability and Gender on Groupthink

This study examines the effect of accountability and gender on the development of group-think In addition, group decision making is contrasted with individual decision making. For groups, individual and collective accountabilityaredistinguished. It is argued that structures of accountability, by counteracting two important antecedent conditions of groupthink, can reduce groupthink tendencies. The results confirm this prediction but do not support the hypothesis that individual accountability will be more effective than collective accountability. As expected, male groups are more affected by accountability than female groups are. Differences between group and individual task performance were only found for men. Imnplications forfuture research on groupthink andfor practice are discussed