Title: Influence of mood states, group discussion, and interpersonal comparison on change in decision-making and information processing

Authors: Sachi Nandan Mohanty; Damodar Suar

Addresses: Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

Abstract: This study examines the joint effects of moods and group processes on decision-making and information processing; 462 students participated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. They reported their choices to economic gain, loss and health-risk situations, reasons for their choices, and the response times to complete the questionnaire. Then, positive and negative moods were induced, followed by a group discussion and an interpersonal comparison of the choices in four conditions. Comparison of post- and pre-test responses revealed choice polarisation and improvement in decision quality following positive-mood and negative-mood group discussion conditions. The information attributes of fluency, originality, and flexibility, and the response time are higher following a negative-mood discussion and negative-mood comparison conditions than following their counterpart conditions. Negative moods slow down thinking. When active cognitive processes are triggered through group discussion, choices polarise with information certification in interpersonal communication, and the effect of a mood degenerates gradually.

Keywords: choice polarisation; group decision making; information attributes; information processing; mood states; group discussion; interpersonal communication; emotion; decision quality; positive moods; negative moods.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDSRM.2013.058915

International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.101 - 123

Received: 05 Sep 2013
Accepted: 29 Oct 2013
Published online: 30 Jun 2014 *

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