The role of selective exposure in preserving decision diversity and group performance

Abstract

Previous research has shown that group decisions obtained by aggregating independent and diverse decisions are typically more accurate than individual decisions. Although decisions in the real world are not independent due to social influence, group decisions have performed well. Using agent-based modelling, we aimed to examine why group decisions perform well in the real world despite social influence by considering the countervailing effects of selective exposure. Our model simulates collective decision-making processes, in which agents make decisions under various levels of social influence and selective exposure, and their decisions are aggregated by the majority rule. A series of numerical experiments reveal that (1) social influence decreases the diversity of decisions and thereby reduces group performance, and (2) selective exposure mitigates the negative effects of social influence on decision diversity and group performance. These findings account for the high group performances in real-world contexts despite social influence and highlight the usefulness of selective exposure amidst negative portrayals in extant literature. Keywords: group decision-making, selective exposure, social influence, echo chambers, majority rule, agent-based models