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Hidden profiles exist when individual group members hold all the information favoring one decision alternative but only a subset of the information favoring another alternative. Given a hidden profile, group members often fail to exchange information completely and consequently make poor decisions. Circumstances in which groups perform poorly are worrisome because groups frequently are asked to make decisions. Conditions that improve group performance on hidden profiles were sought. Group information sharing and decision-making effectiveness were found to be higher in small groups with a low percentage of shared information, and lower when groups either were large or shared a high percentage of information (N = 80 groups). Greater information sharing, however, did not correlate with longer discussions. The proportion of shared information affected bolstering and discounting of information. Qualitative observations of group behavior are presented, and the implications of the results for information sharing and decision making are discussed.

This study examined the role of the norm of reciprocity in mediating the relative effect of compliance-gaining message type on compliance in interactions involving friends and strangers. Subjects received either a direct request to purchase raffle tickets or received the request after having a favor done for them by a confederate, a pregiving message. Results indicate that friends comply more with requests than strangers and that their compliance is constant across message types. Among strangers, the pregiving message produced more compliance than the direct request.

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