Social Influences in Standard Setting: The Effects of Social Interaction on Group Judgments

This paper reviews research from social psychology on the effects of group discussion and of exposure to the opinion positions of other group members on the decisions that groups make. The paper describes this research and its findings and outlines current explanations for these findings. Then the pertinence of this research to standard-setting practices used in educational contexts is considered, and its implications for the design of standard-setting procedures are explored.