Xref: utzoo comp.ai:8411 sci.psychology:4120 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.psychology Subject: Re: Metaphors, Information and War Summary: making critical decisions Message-ID: <16406@venera.isi.edu> Date: 17 Jan 91 16:20:09 GMT References: <801@keele.keele.ac.uk> <802@keele.keele.ac.uk> <1991Jan12.035939.4706@athena.cs.uga.edu> <1991Jan15.202949.28173@mcs.anl.gov> <2761@infinet.UUCP> Reply-To: smoliar@venera.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: Information Sciences Institute, Univ. of So. California Lines: 36 Keywords: In article <2761@infinet.UUCP> sena@infinet.UUCP (Fred Sena) writes: >In article <1991Jan15.202949.28173@mcs.anl.gov> kazic@valanor.mcs.anl.gov >> (Toni Kazic) writes: >> >> What effect does concentrating decision-making into a small group have >>on the quality of decisions? > >I once took a course on human development or psychology which talked about >this. It seemed to me that the conclusion was that when decisions are left up >to a group instead of an individual, they tend to be lower quality. (I >suppose it depends on the group though, and how well they interact with one >another.) The reason a group may not make as "good" a decision is that in a >group there is less of a sense of responsiblity by each member for the >outcome of a decision. In other words, finger pointing can be used for self >justification. Also, I think that groups tend to get into a sort of "mob >mentality", where people may go along against their intuitive feelings that a >decision may not be good as far as they are concerned. Has anyone else been >on a project using the "design by committee" method? It is probably good >for an individual making a decision to consult with a group before making the >decision, but then proceed to take complete responsibility for the decision. > Theodore Sorensen gave a brief analysis of Kennedy's decision making on Tuesday night's FRONTLINE. He basically used the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis as two case studies. The Bay of Pigs was the product of a very small group--Kennedy and a few "inner circle" advisors who basically tended to support anything he said. For the Cuban Missile Crisis, he deliberately assembled as larger and more diverse group, explicitly to hear out those who disagreed with the position he took into the meeting. The result was that that position changed as a product of the meeting. Bush has apparently planned his Iraq strategy with the small "inner circle" approach; but he seems to be doing better than Kennedy did with the Bay of Pigs. -- USPS: Stephen Smoliar 5000 Centinela Avenue #129 Los Angeles, California 90066 Internet: smoliar@venera.isi.edu