Rudeness and status effects during group problem solving: Do they bias evaluations and reduce the likelihood of correct solutions?

Rudeness and status can affect group-problem-solving processes. Eighty high school students completed a questionnaire and were videotaped doing an algebra problem in groups of 4. A new statistical method for analyzing group processes was used to analyze predictors of agreement and solution score. As expected, the previous speaker's correctness predicted agreement. In successful groups, agreement was also affected positively by academic status and negatively by justifications. In unsuccessful groups, however, agreement was affected positively by recent agreements and negatively by recent rude actions. Solution score was predicted positively by academic grade and percentage of correct turns but negatively by rudeness. Thus, rudeness negatively biased agreement and made a correct solution less likely, but biases from academic status were relatively benign. Copyright © 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.