Measuring “Group Cohesion” to Reveal the Power of Social Relationships in Team Production

Gächter, Simon; Starmer, Chris; Tufano, Fabio

Abstract

We introduce "group cohesion" to study the economic relevance of social relationships in team production. We operationalize measurement of group cohesion, adapting the "oneness scale" from psychology. A series of experiments, including a pre-registered replication, reveals strong positive associations between group cohesion and performance assessed in weak-link coordination games, with high-cohesion groups being very likely to achieve superior equilibria. In exploratory analysis, we identify beliefs rather than social preferences as the primary mechanism through which factors proxied by group cohesion influence group performance. Our evidence provides proof-of-concept for group cohesion as a useful tool for economic research and practice.

Citation

Gächter, S., Starmer, C., & Tufano, F. (2023). Measuring “Group Cohesion” to Reveal the Power of Social Relationships in Team Production. Review of Economics and Statistics, 1-45. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01283

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 30, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 6, 2023
• Publication Date: Feb 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 10, 2023
• Journal: The Review of Economics and Statistics
• Print ISSN: 0034-6535
• Electronic ISSN: 1530-9142
• Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-45
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01283
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17081599
• Publisher URL: https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01283/114758/Measuring-Group-Cohesion-to-Reveal-the-Power-of