An empirical study of a new method for forming group judgments: Qualitative Controlled Feedback

The Qualitative Controlled Feedback (QCF) method was developed by Press [1] to assist policy makers in forming judgments and making decisions that reflect the careful interactive reasoning and arguments of all of the members of a group or population. Since the QCF method involves controlled feedback, it tends to minimize the effects of face-to-face group interaction pressures. Since the feedback is “qualitative,” however, the procedure tends not to artificially induce a consensus on the group. This paper summarizes a feasibility study of the procedure. A sample of 111 faculty and staff members of the University of British Columbia participated in the testing of the method. The participants were asked to make a judgment on the importance of building an aquatic center on campus. A second (control) group of 89 faculty and staff members was surveyed on the same issue, but using the conventional survey method, that is, no feedback. It was observed that Qualitative Controlled Feedback created a good interaction (in the sense of exchanging arguments and reasons) among group members. Changes in judgments occurred as subjects went from one stage to another after having qualitative feedback of information. It was also found that the judgments given by the subjects in the qualitative controlled feedback group were distributed quite differently from those given by the control group. The method suggests a significantly new way of collecting and interpreting group judgments.