Can a Temporarily Formed Network-type Group be Free from Groupthink Symptons? : An Argument from the Viewpoint of Self-categorization Theory and Social Identity Theory

Abstract

Risk judgement involved with the development and the management of today's technology is usually made by plural persons. It is because a group of persons is assumed to be able to make wiser judgements or decisions than a single person. But many researches of social psy-chology have shown that groups often make some deficient decisions. Cohesiveness of a group has been thought to be the key factor that brings about such deficiency. In the meantime Gibbons et al. argue that a new mode of knowledge production is emerging. This new mode is characterized by the participation of various persons loosely related to one another in a temporal network. A group formed under this mode seems to be free from the deficiency that is assumed to accompany group decision making. Because it is difficult to presume that there is strong cohesiveness among a group of dissimilar persons related to one another only in a temporal network. But in this article the author argues that it is social identity based on social categorization that makes a group decision making biased and distorted. Social categorization won't dis-appear even in a network-type new society. For this reason, group decision making will show the same deficiency as ever even under the new mode of knowledge production.