Diversity of ability and cognitive style for group decision processes

This research investigates the potential for two forms of error diversity (ability diversity and diversity of cognitive style) to increase the accuracy of multi-agent group decision processes. An experimental methodology is employed that rigorously controls for the sources of error diversity. The results indicate that ability diversity decreases group decision errors by approximately 4%. Cognitive diversity is much more effective; decision errors are reduced by approximately 13% by groups formed from four cognitive classes. As sources of ability and cognitive diversity increase, the generalization error of the group decision decreases, and the prominence of the most capable member (i.e., expert) in the group diminishes. Thus, the popular reliance on using more capable members to create high performance homogenous groups may be misguided. This research indicates that a better strategy is to create groups of members that ‘think differently’ and cooperate to produce a group decision. Using this strategy, we are able to reduce the group decision error in two bankruptcy detection data sets by 11–47%. Reductions of this magnitude in high volume, high value, and repetitive decision environments characterizing the financial domain are extremely significant, where error reductions of even a fraction of a percent are welcome.