Persuasive Arguments Theory, Group Polarization, and Choice Shifts
An experiment investigating the influence of information exchange (the number and persuasiveness of arguments) on group polarization and choice shifts found both the number and the persuasiveness of arguments to have significant influences. The results generally supported Persuasive Arguments Theory, al-though a weighted-average version of the theory was found to be incomplete since it did not provide for the effects of number of arguments. The results also supported the importance of distinguishing between group polarization and choice shifts-the individual and group levels of analysis respectively.