What A Glass of Beer Says About Group Decision-Making: Individualist and Collectivist Biases By Dr. Thomas J. Bussen
Y
ou made it: it’s Friday afternoon. You’re sitting down for happy hour with your friends from work. You look over the beer menu and order last. How likely is it that you allow your friends’ orders to determine your eventual order? For most of us, there’s a pretty good chance that that is just what would happen. But exactly how your friends’ choices affect your beer choice depends on whether you’re more of an individualist or a collectivist. And this, in turn, has important implications for optimal decision-making in the workplace. Scholar Dan Ariely traveled to a popular brewery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, approached a table of customers, and offered each of them the choice
18
2022 First Quarter
of one of four types of beer for free. Ariely was not being generous; he was conducting a study. The name and full description of each beer was provided.i In return, the lucky customers simply had to fill out a short survey documenting how much they’d enjoyed the beer and whether they regretted their decision. Naturally, he had little trouble finding takers, and by the end of the day he’d visited 100 tables, while running up a bill of $1,400.ii Ariely was surprised to notice a trend, which the data confirmed: once one type of beer was chosen by a member of a table, it was less likely to be chosen by another member of the table. This seemed illogical, to say the least. After all, a beer is no less tasty just because your table mate is drink-
ing it. The survey results showed that the first person to order was typically the most satisfied with her choice, suggesting that subsequent people were making choices based on the choices of their tablemates, and that they were left less satisfied.iii
The Need for Uniqueness What was going on? Ariely changed the conditions to find out. He asked the next set of customers not to verbally voice their preferred beer, as in the first sample, but instead to write down their preferences on a small menu and keep their decisions private until the rest of the table had ordered.iv Again, they received their beers and filled out the satisfaction survey.v This changed
www.diversityjournal.com
