Effects of High-Rate Talkers on Group Voting Behavior in the Leaderless-Group Problem-Solving Situation

Abstract

This study investigated the bases of voting behavior by naive Ss for a group member who is high in the hierarchy of verbal output among the group but not superior in correctness of his decisions in response to various problems presented. 12 groups of female Ss [3 naive Ss and an experimental corroborator (incognito to the naive Ss)] were to solve 30 relatively unstructured concept-formation problems, discuss their solutions, and then vote for a “leader” for each of the problems. It was shown that non-perceptive Ss attribute the collaborator with significantly more perceptions of correctness than perceptive Ss and, correspondingly, take away a significant number of perceptions of correctness from individuals who rank low in the duration hierarchy.