Reducing cognitive conflict through feedback in GDSS: an experiment in the formulation of group preferences

Conflict between decision-makers engaged in group decision-making can arise from interest differences, cognitive limitations, or both. Research in group decision support systems (GDSS) has addressed the former, but has neglected the latter, i.e. cognitive conflict. The paper explains how cognitive conflict affects group decision-making and how such conflict can be reduced through cognitive feedback. GDSS offers new opportunities for providing such feedback, and a simple experiment demonstrates the kinds of research questions that arise in this context. The results of the experiment suggest that feedback can play a role in group decision-making and that this may be an important direction for research in GDSS. The study also points to the need for further research with more complex decisions