Deviance in task groups

J. Lukas Thürmer wants to understand how people in groups collectively attain their goals. This START project, Deviance in Task Groups, investigates when groups can better utilize deviant performances, information, and criticism. The key hypothesis is that contributions from performance deviants are only accepted by the group when the deviants show a clear intention to benefit the group. To systematically test this hypothesis, the project focuses on three prototypical classes of deviants in task groups: Performance deviants who show particularly good or poor performance (e.g., lifting a weight for a long time). Decision deviants who bring up controversial information or preferences during discussions for a group decision. And criticism deviants who criticize the groups current approach and suggest new strategies to solve the problem at hand. Each of the three situations threatens a fundamental group goal: High performance violates the norm of equal contributions and poor performance endangers joint task progress. Deviant information and preferences threaten the shared worldview. And criticism threatens the positive view of ones own group. Thus, groups commonly fail to capitalize on helpful contributions, information, or ideas. A series of experiments will test the basic assumption that groups tolerate apparently well-meaning deviants but reject the same behavior when it is apparently not intended to help the group. The core of the project are interactive experiments. Participants will work on performance, decision, and problem-solving tasks as a group. One person will show deviant performance, disclose conflicting information, or express criticism. The behavior of all group members will be filmed and analyzed using special software and coding procedures. This will yield detailed, frame-by-frame data of the group members facial expressions and verbal exchange. Merging these data sources allows the systematic analysis of group reactions to the deviant. In addition, the tasks indicate the influence of the deviant person on the performance of the group. The START prize enables this extensive and systematic approach. The experiments will provide a large body of systematic and detailed group data for explorative analyses of dynamic group interaction. Austria is an excellent research context for this project, as people here demonstrably pay close attention to each other; the observed effects could be even more pronounced in other countries that are less socially mindful.