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Published 1978 | Published
Book Section - Chapter

Communication and Agenda Influence: The Chocolate Pizza Design

Abstract

The previous experimental research conducted by Levine and Plott leaves little doubt that the agenda used by voting committees to sequentially eliminate options can be a major parameter in determining the group's final choice. The range of circumstances for which this proposition is true has not yet been isolated. It is clearly true for a set of experimental circumstances within which communication and casual conversations among committee members is rather severally restricted. Applications of the theory to complicated field situations suggest that the proposition is true for very rick environments but such claims are not backed by replication. Furthermore, several theories and even related experimental results suggest that the influence of the agenda will decrease as communication among group members increases. In this paper, we introduce an experimental setting designed to facilitate group discussion and interaction. Experimental results conduced within this design and reported below support the earlier findings that the agenda is a predominant factor in determining the final outcome of group choice.

Acknowledgement

The financial support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Ms. Cohen is a graduate student at Caltech and a Brookings Institution Fellow. Professors Levine and Plott are affiliated with both the California Institute of Technology and the U.S.C. Law Center.

Additional Information

Papers presented at the second Conference on Experimental Economics, Winzenhohl, Germany, August 28th to September 2nd, 1977.

Copyright and License

© 1978 Mohr. 

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
March 5, 2024