TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Gächter, Simon
AU  - Starmer, Chris
AU  - Tufano, Fabio
        TI  - Measuring 'Group Cohesion' to Reveal the Power of Social Relationships in Team Production
        PY  - 2022/Aug/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 15512
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15512
        AB  - 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. 
        KW  - experiments
KW  - social relationships
KW  - group cohesion
KW  - oneness
KW  - coordination
KW  - weak-link game
KW  - real groups
        ER  -