A Model of Improving Individual Satisfaction in Group Conversation Based on Estimation of Group Status

We generated a model to improve the satisfaction individual group members involved in a decision-making conversation by the intervention such as eliciting opinions from the members that cannot express in the discussion for group decision. We assume to estimate the group status by measuring the utterance (phonetic) characteristics in the conversation. Our goal is to develop a model that would provide decision support. In group decision making, some members may hesitate or yield their position to superiors, or they may offer no concrete ideas or suggestions, and thus may feel frustration during the conversation. Members who are in a weak position may not be as confident and may not be able to clearly express their intentions. As a test case, we consider the challenge of providing support to a group during a decision-making process (e.g., route, stopover) while traveling in a car. We sought to measure the satisfaction of each member during the process of decision making. Furthermore, the relationship between individual satisfaction and receptivity depended on how a member was accepted during the group discussions. We found that several participants in the test conversations exhibited increasing levels of stress when proposals were rejected or not thoroughly discussed. Thus, we think that reducing the frequency of such situations may be relevant in improving decision-making satisfaction. Therefore, we propose that a model in which all members of the group are given an equal opportunity to make proposals, and in which no members face continuous rejection during the decision-making conversation, will produce the greatest satisfaction. We plan to continue to study this model to facilitate the design of a decision support system.