Collective induction: Group performance, social combination processes, and mutual majority and minority influence.

To relate group performance, social combination processes, and majority (MJ) and minority (MN) influence yoked 4-person MJ and 2-person MN cooperative groups induced the same rule at the same pace. There were 4 conditions of information exchange between the MJ and MN on each trial: exchange both hypotheses and evidence, exchange hypotheses only, exchange evidence only, or exchange neither. Results supported 5 conclusions: (1) Exchange of evidence improved the performance of both the MJ and MN relatively more than did exchange of hypotheses. (2) The MJ performed better than the MN. (3) The MJ and MN followed similar strategies, differing only quantitatively as a function of faction size. (4) The social combination processes for 4-person MJ groups were orderly, were consistent with theory (the position of the inductive task on the intellective-judgmental continuum and four conditions of demonstrability), replicated previous research, and predicted analogous social combination processes in 2-person MN groups. (5) There was mutual MJ and MN influence by exchange of evidence, no influence by exchange of hypotheses, and relatively more MJ influence on the MN than MN influence on the MJ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)