Falsification cueing in collective reasoning: example of the Wason selection task

This paper focuses on the effectiveness of groups, as opposed to individuals, in benefiting from falsification cueing in solving the Wason selection task. Consistent with the idea that groups use information that often individuals fail to use, Experiment 1 showed that groups (but not individuals) that received falsification cueing focused more on cue‐consistent evidence in their reasoning. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the increment in focus on cue‐consistent evidence is moderated by the distribution of the falsification cue within a group. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that the cue distribution affects collective focus on cue‐consistent evidence through the content of the group discussion, namely through mentioning the cue during the discussion. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.