Description:
<jats:p>Group decision making has attracted much scientific interest, but few studies have investigated group decisions that do not get made. Based on the Motivated Information Processing in Groups model, this study analysed the effect of epistemic motivation (low vs. high) and social motivation (proself vs. prosocial) on group decision refusal (the decision to delay choice and refuse all options). In a laboratory experiment, groups had to negotiate diverse preferences and choose one of three options or refuse all. When epistemic motivation was low decisions were made quickly, whereas high epistemic motivation more often led to refusal. This effect was partly mediated by perceived information insufficiency. Social motivation did not affect refusal, but proself motivation led to longer discussions, greater task conflict and more forcing behavior than prosocial motivation. Further, forcing was negatively related to decision refusal, but only when epistemic motivation was low.</jats:p>