Disagreeing on whether agreement is persuasive: perceptions of expert group decisions.

ABSTRACT: While expert groups often make recommendations on a range of non-controversial as well as controversial issues, little is known about how the level of expert consensus-the level of expert agreement-influences perceptions of the recommendations. This research illustrates that for non-controversial issues expert groups that exhibit high levels of agreement are more persuasive than expert groups that exhibit low levels of agreement. This effect is mediated by the perceived entitativity-the perceived cohesiveness or unification of the group-of the expert group. But for controversial issues, this effect is moderated by the perceivers' implicit assumptions about the group composition. When perceivers are provided no information about a group supporting the Affordable Care Act-a highly controvers

SUBMITTER: Votruba AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4374688 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature