COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY, COMMUNICATION STRATEGY, AND INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY IN GROUPS - PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE REACTIONS TO MAJORITY AND MINORITY STATUS

Archival studies of political decision-making groups show that the pub lic statements of policy makers in the majority are higher in integrat ive complexity than those of minority-faction or unanimous group membe rs. However, whether these differences reflect policy makers' private thoughts, or their public impression management strategies, cannot be inferred using only data from the public record. The experiment report ed here established that in freely interacting groups composed of majo rities and minorities, this pattern is obtained under private communic ation conditions as well as in public statements. Results suggest that cognitive flexibility in response to influence from insiders, rather than communication strategies designed to influence outsiders, underli es the differences observed. (C) 1998 Academic Press.