The good, the bad and the ugly thing to do when sharing information: Revealing, concealing and lying depend on social motivation, distribution and importance of information

W. Steinel, S. Utz, L. Koning

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Research on information sharing in group decision-making has widely assumed a cooperative context and focused on the exchange of shared or unshared information in the hidden profile paradigm (Stasser & Titus, 1985, 1987), neglecting the role of information importance. We argue that information sharing is a mixed-motive conflict setting that gives rise to motivated strategic behavior. We introduce a research paradigm that combines aspects of the traditional information sampling paradigm with aspects of a public good dilemma: the information pooling game. In three experiments, we show that information sharing is strategic behavior that depends on people's pro-social or pro-self motivation, and that people consider information sharedness and information importance when deciding whether to reveal, withhold, or falsify their private or public information. Pro-social individuals were consistently found to honestly reveal their private and important information, while selfish individuals strategically concealed or even lied about their private and important information. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-96
Number of pages12
JournalOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Volume113
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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