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Information elaboration is the mechanism through which diverse group members share unique knowledge and perspectives to form better and more creative responses to tasks. However, little is known about the conditions under which group members will be willing and motivated to engage in information elaboration. This article presents a field study conducted in an energy company to investigate that issue. Regression analysis of survey responses suggests that group members who have deep, underlying differences in perspective from the group engage in less information elaboration, particularly if they perceive themselves as similar to the group. Recognizing deep-level differences is helpful, however, when an individual also differs from the group in surface-level characteristics, because those differences improve information elaboration. This finding suggests that surface-level diversity prompts group members to understand and appreciate their deep-level differences.
