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Social Exchange in Group Consensus Development: Face-to-Face versus Electronic Mail

A sequence of experimental studies (Kiesler et al., 1984; Siegel et al., 1986) revealed that computer media had an unexpected inflammatory effect on group discussions. E.g, in comparison with face-to-face, computer-mediated groups exhibited more uninhibited verbal behavior (such as swearing and name calling). In this study we attempted theoretical explanation of each case of uninhibition encountered in content analysis of group discussions obtained during recently conducted experiment. The social exchange model (Dubrovsky, 1986) was used for this purpose. The model was empirically specified for group consensus development by means of a special questionnaire. Its predictions were then tested against available experimental group discussions material. This study offers theoretical explanation to most of the observed cases of uninhibited verbal behavior in computer-mediated discussions. It contributes to our understanding of a group consensus development process. It increases the validity of the social exchange model.