In this paper, we meta‐analyzed nine of our own studies to examine gender effects in decision‐making when information is asymmetrically distributed among group members in a hidden profile (HP). In particular, we examined the influence of individual preferences on decision‐making outcomes and how, or whether, they differed by gender. The meta‐analysis of our studies, which focused on individual decision‐making, suggested that the individual preference effect (IPE), a form of confirmation bias, may manifest differently by gender: Female participants in the HP condition demonstrated greater improvement in decision quality when moving from viewing partial to full information than their male counterparts. No gender differences in decision quality were found when information was presented in a structured one‐page Manifest Profile (MP), with all information made immediately available to all participants. This gender differential in the IPE is not contemplated by previous IPE or HP research, so this finding is of significant interest. We discuss our results in the context of previous mixed findings regarding the effect of gender diversity in improving group decision‐making and potential workplace changes required to recognize this gender difference.

PurposeThe “Individual Preference Effect” (IPE: Faulmüller et al., 2010; Greitemeyer and Schulz-Hardt, 2003; Greitemeyer et al., 2003), a form of confirmation bias, is an important barrier to achieving improved group decision-making outcomes in hidden profile tasks. Group members remain committed to their individual preferences and are unable to disconfirm their initial suboptimal selection decisions, even when presented with full information enabling them to correct them, and even if the accompanying group processes are perfectly conducted. This paper examines whether a mental simulation can overcome the IPE.Design/methodology/approachTwo experimental studies examine the effect of a mental simulation intervention in attenuating the IPE and improving decision quality in an online individual hidden profile task.FindingsIndividuals undertaking a mental simulation achieved higher decision quality than those in a control condition and experienced a greater reduction in confidence in the suboptimal solution.Research limitations/implicationsResults suggest a role for mental simulation in overcoming the IPE. The test environment is an online individual decision-making task, and broader application to group decision-making is not tested.Practical implicationsSince mental simulation is something we all do, it should easily generalise to an organisational setting to improve decision outcomes.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, no study has examined whether mental simulation can attenuate the IPE.

This research seeks to expand our knowledge of what underlies group performance in Hidden Profile decision tasks, adopting a mixed methods approach. We created a new mental simulation intervention designed to improve group decision outcomes and information exchange and tested it across two studies. We supplemented our quantitative statistical analysis with Thematic Analysis, to explore and better understand the motivations and utterances of individual group members, which we contend are key to increasing understanding of the challenges operating at individual and group levels in Hidden Profile decision tasks. Much group decision-making research uses quantitative methodologies, searching for causal explanations of why things happen as they do in group processes. As a subset of this area, existent Hidden Profile research is centred in the quantitative domain. Yet qualitative research can improve the understanding of group phenomena, such as communication style, which is important in groups' decision-making. To our knowledge, no Hidden Profile research has taken a similar approach, so this paper makes a unique contribution. Results indicated the mental simulation had a positive effect on information exchange and decision quality in a Hidden Profile hiring task.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.