The impact of group model building on behavior

Abstract

Group model building refers to a process of building system dynamics models with decision makers, experts and other stakeholders. In early studies, participants were mainly asked to participate in order to bring their knowledge into the modeling process, contributing insights and data that often cannot be found in other data sources. Later, it was recognised that clients who have an active role in setting the focus of a modeling project and building the model are likely to understand and accept the results. Group model building research, which has gradually shifted from a focus on changes in participant behaviour after the modeling project to behaviour in modeling sessions, can be divided into four waves. The first wave of group model building explored the underlying mechanisms, either focusing on participants as recipients or sources of information or looking at the relation between receiving and contributing information. The second wave of studies uses theories from social psychology to explain how modeling impacts knowledge and behaviour. While these studies focus on receiving information, the third wave of studies looks at participants as actively constructing information. Finally, a fourth wave of studies looks at the interaction between receiving and contributing information. This chapter starts by explaining the practice of group model building in more depth. The main part describes the four waves in turn. Ideas for further research are formulated at the end.