Mechanism of Psychologization of Institutions in Group Decision-making

Group decision-making is an important form of government decision-making. However, studies on interaction between decision-making institutions and decision-makers’ psychologies have been seldom seen. From the... [ view full abstract ]

Group decision-making is an important form of government decision-making. However, studies on interaction between decision-making institutions and decision-makers’ psychologies have been seldom seen. From the "institution-psychology" perspective, our study adopted laboratory experiment. In our experiment, three commonly seen government group decision-making institutions were independent variables, namely electoral institution, deliberative institution and democratic centralism and decision-makers’ psychological attributes and behaviors were dependent variables. We found that group decision-making displayed institutional effects. Psychological approaches of observing the three different institutions varied. This was mainly reflected in decision-makers’ perceptions, observation behaviors and initiative responses to institutions. Decision-makers’ individual psychological attributes, such as values, personality traits (including self-orientation) and cognitive styles had significant correlation with psychologization of decision-making institutions. With interview materials, we conducted a further exploration to generalize common mechanism of psychologization of institutions in decision-making. The study on government group decision-making in the paradigm of laboratory observation pointed to a new path for revealing the “black box” of government decision-making.

Key words: Government Group Decision-making; Institution Psychologization; Experiment