Knowledge-based Support in a Group Decision Making Context: An Expert-Novice Comparison

Knowledge-based systems (KBS), which represent the knowledge and problem-solving expertise of human experts as well as other sources of expertise in narrow knowledge domains, have been used to support group decision-making. This research studied the use of a KBS and its explanation facilities to support group decision-making of experts versus novices in a laboratory setting. Consistent with predictions from social judgment theory, the results indicate that experts exhibit a higher level of criticality and involvement in their area of expertise; this not only decreases their likelihood of being persuaded by the KBS, but also accounts for a lower group consensus among experts as compared to novices. Novices benefit more from KBS use and find KBS to be more useful than experts do. In terms of theoretical contributions, this research integrates social judgment theory from the persuasion literature into research on group use of KBS.