Let's make a trip together: an exploration into decision-making within groups of friends

(eng) This paper presents an interpretative study of decision making within groups of friends. Eighteen groups were observed and interviewed while making leisure decisions. Emerging findings highlight how groups of friends depart from other groups such as families or buying centers. Among others, communication is less extensive, group cohesivess is weaker, which leads to later decisions and to the need for leadership in the group. In addition, this study shows that individual preferences are no good predictors of the group choice and that group decision making is not always very effective. What seems the most important is to preserve affective ties between members whatever the outcome of the decision-making process. Finally, an original typology of three types of groups of friends is proposed.