Diffusion of Responsibility and Level of Risk Taking in Groups.

This study reports evidence supporting the following propositions: (1) Group discussion and consensus concerning decisions that involve actual risk and payoffs lead to greater risk taking than occurs in the absence of such discussion and consensus. (2) The mechanism that underlies this group-induced shift toward greater risk taking consists of a diffusion or spreading of responsibility. Using risks and payoffs based on monetary gain and 108s for problem-solving performance} the above propositions received strong confirmation for male college subjects. The results of various experimental manipulations provided positive support for viewing diffusion of responsibility as the causal factor at work. DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY AND LEVEL OF RISK TAKING IN GROUPS1 In a recent study of individual and group decision-making, Wallach, Kogan, and Bem (1962) found that a group consensus achieved through social interaction tended to be more risky than the average decision of the individual members of those groups. In each of a number of hypothetical life situations, a protagonist faced the choice between a more risky and a less risky alternative. The individual or the group was asked to decide on the lowest probability level for the success of the more risky alternative that would suffice to warrant its choice. The generation of a greater risk taking orientation was all the more intriguing because of the social forces that might have been expected to yield an averaging effect or a move toward greater conservatism as the product of group interaction. Averaging might be expected through a process of minimizing the maximum individual concession; greater conservatism, through a fear of appearing foolhardy to others. That greater risk taking occurred instead, however, suggested that individuals, when constituted as a group, experience a diffusion of responsibility as a product of the knowledge that one is deciding upon an action jointly with others rather than deciding by oneself. The present experiment was designed to cast further light on issues raised by our previous work. Consider first the hypothetical nature of the risks involved in the previous study's decision situations. Since the life dilemmas dealt with by the individual or the group were hypothetical, one must ask whether similar or different results would be obtained in decision situations involving actual rather than hypothetical risks and payoffs. Despite the realistic and highly involving character of the hypothetical decision problems, the introduction of actual payoffs in the decision