Writing involves loose ratification. Generated viewpoints are more or less specific episodes that can be subsequently endorsed or contradicted. As the GEM progresses in time, participants start to write for the others instead of writing for themselves by adapting their own language to what they have just read. Participants need to understand the needs and abilities of the others if they want to communicate. The difference between talking and writing lies in the fact that they have more time and opportunity to express their viewpoints in an undisturbed atmosphere.
Positive reinforcement contributes to the validity of the viewpoint.
A negative statement or refutation provides an alternative view but there is an assumption of position by virtue of being written-the argument against must be strong enough to dislodge it. In this context, it is possible to talk about a logic of discovery. The indeterminate nature of the result of interactions between the participants as rational agents creates a situation of investigation and confrontation of knowledge. By reading each others' statements and, in the later phases of GEM, by visualizing conceptual structures that the group generates, participants need to re-examine their own knowledge. This was observed in each GEM experiment that we carried out.