Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

Deception has been an important problem in interactive groups, impeding effective group communication and group work, yet deception detection in such a context remains understudied. Extrapolated from the interpersonal deception theory (IDT) and group composition research in cooperative contexts, this research proposes that group factors, including diversity and familiarity, have influence on the performance of deception detection. The measurement of group performance was not limited to success, as previous deception studies did, but included efficiency as well because it is fundamental to the effectiveness of deception detection. An analysis of data collected from a real-world online community found that behavioral familiarity had a positive effect, and gender diversity had a negative effect, on group success in deception detection. In addition, behavioral familiarity had a negative effect and functional diversity had a positive effect on the group efficiency of deception detection. The findings not only extend IDT in several important ways but also suggest the need to distinguish between noncooperative and cooperative groups, an important theoretical implication for group composition research.

via The Effects of Group Factors on Deception Detection Performance.

This research introduces the concept of feeling known—or the belief that others have developed accurate opinions of one’s traits and characteristics—to the team literature. Various theoretical streams posit that acquiring a sense of being known and understood is a central human motivation that leads to positive outcomes for individuals. The present research links team member’s sense of feeling known with team member’s reports of interpersonal trust, personal learning, and project satisfaction in a large sample of project teams. Using a longitudinal study design, this research finds that feeling known is indeed a strong predictor of proximal and distal team member outcomes. Additional analyses reveal that team members’ sense of feeling known plays a role in predicting outcomes for both face-to-face and virtual team members, despite the fact that virtual team members report feeling less known than face-to-face team members. The practical significance of these results is discussed.

via The Role of Feeling Known for Team Member Outcomes in Project Teams.

A number of studies on electronic brainstorming have found that large electronic groups can facilitate the number of ideas generated relative to control groups of similar numbers of solitary performers (nominal groups). Thus far there is no clear evidence for the basis of this facilitative effect. The most likely explanation is that group members benefit from exposure to the wide range of ideas in large groups. Since most electronic brainstorming studies appear to divide the presented ideas into subfolders to avoid overloading participants with too many ideas, this practice may be important for demonstration of a benefit of exposure to a large number of ideas. The present study was designed to assess the role of number of ideas and number of folders on individual idea generation and to eliminate some alternative interpretations for the group size effect. Participants performed an idea generation task on computers while being exposed to either no ideas, 28 ideas, or 112 ideas. The 28 and 112 ideas were presented in either one, four, or eight folders. The results indicated that only the number of ideas factor was important for facilitating idea generation.

via Understanding the Group Size Effect in Electronic Brainstorming.