Better Lagged than Never: the Lagged Effects of Process Interventions on Group Decisions

This study investigated three issues regarding process interventions in group decision making: (1) how process interventions affect group decision making processes and outcomes; (2) how persistent these effects are, and (3) how the timing (earlier vs. later) and type (directive vs. participative) of process intervention moderate these effects. The key finding was that process interventions had immediate effects on critical group processes, but did not significantly improve decision quality during the task in which the intervention was received. Surprisingly, postintervention processes continued to improve and resulted in improved decisions in a subsequent task. This “lagged” effect was mediated by the degree to which groups aggregated unique information and avoided advocating for individual members’ preferences.