Reaching a Final Consensus in a Discussion: the Impact of Real-time Intention Expression Related to Categories

A facilitator is effective for ensuring smooth and appropriate decision-making in group discussions. In this study, we developed the “Discussion Board System” for the purpose of reproducing a part of the facilitator's function and grasping the intentions of discussion participants in real time. Each discussion participant had their own terminal on which the application was installed. The participants could show the agreement or disagreement with each keyword extracted from the other participants' utterances by moving the keywords to item boxes on their individual screens. The movements of the keywords were not visible to other participants before the discussion was over, thus each participant's screen could be considered a “semi-personal space.” In an experiment using the system, the progress and decisions of all participants were compared with each individual participant's intentions, as shown by their moving of keywords. A final decision could include the intentions of a “silent denier,” which is difficult to elicit in consideration of human relationships during typical discussions. Moreover, even though the screens were not shared among participants, the moving of each keyword to the item box could be regarded as a simple approval action of the participant's opinion. Thus, one of the positive effects of a facilitator, “fostering a sense of satisfaction” among participants, may be realized by the system.