Convergence to Consensus — The Extended Model

Abstract

In the preceding chapter we examined an elementary model of group decisionmaking in which a single set of individuals evaluated both the initial decision variable at issue and each others’ expertise at this and higher order judgmental tasks. Our analysis was carried out under the assumption that individuals were perceived to have uniform, though perhaps individually differing, skills at all of the relevant levels of judgment. In this setting consensus, when it was implicit in the pattern of respect among members of the group, emerged as the limit of powers of a single square weight matrix.