EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATIONAL AND NORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN GROUP DECISION-MAKING DEPENDS ON THE GROUP INTERACTIVE GOAL

Male or female subjects believed they were exchanging notes with four other members of a decision-making group of the same gender. Notes wer e contrived to exert either normative or informational influences. Ins tructions stressed either task goals, in which attaining the optimum, most correct decision was important, or group goals, which stressed gr oup relations, mutual consideration and harmony. As predicted, group g oals facilitated greater normative influence, and task goals facilitat ed greater informational influence. A form of influence is most effect ive when it is congruent with the interactive goal of the group, suppo rting Kaplan's (1987, 1989) model of conditions determining influence processes in groups. Contrary to predictions, gender did not interact with the interactive goal/influence type conjunction. The effect of th e interactive goal on the impact of normative or informational influen ce was particularly striking, and furnishes a strong test of the hypot hesis, given the minimal nature of group interchange in this study.