News Release 10-174
New Study Validates Factors That Enhance the Intelligence of a Group
Tendency to cooperate effectively is linked to the number of women in a group
October 1, 2010
Watch a video of lead author Anita Woolley describing the study's findings, a video of Thomas Malone's presentation at the 2010 World Economic Forum, or a video of Thomas Malone explaining group intelligence.
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
According to new study co-authored by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and Union College, group intelligence may not be quantified as the sum or average of the cognitive abilities of its members.
By studying small teams of randomly assembled individuals, researchers discovered that groups featuring the right kind of internal dynamics perform well on a wide range of assignments, regardless of the sum or average individual cognitive abilities of the group's members.
Further, a group's intelligence, or its ability to complete a series of demanding multi-functional tasks, is positively linked to higher levels of "social sensitivity," a more equal distribution of member participation levels, and to the number of women in a group.
Social scientists had long contended that a measurable level of intelligence in each individual person is a predictive measure of an individual's ability to fare well on diverse cognitive tasks.
"Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups" has been accepted for publication in the scientific journal Science and was pre-published online in the Sept. 30 Science Express.
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View a video of Thomas Malone's presentation at the WEF.
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First Author Anita Woolley of CMU describes the study's findings.
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View a video of Thomas Malone explaining group intelligence.
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Anita Williams Woolley, lead author and assistant professor at CMU's Tepper School of Management.
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Thomas W. Malone, Director, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and Sloan Management Professor.
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Christopher F. Chabris, co-author and assistant professor of psychology at Union College.
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Media Contacts
Jennifer Hirsch, MIT, (617) 253-1682, email: jfhirsch@mit.edu
Lisa-Joy Zgorski, NSF, (703) 292-8311, email: lzgorski@nsf.gov
Mark D. Burd, Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, (412) 268-3486, email: mdburd@andrew.cmu.edu
Principal Investigators
Christopher F. Chabris, Union College, (518) 388-6000, email: chabris@gmail.com
Anita Williams Woolley, Carnegie Mellon University, (412) 268-2287, email: awoolley@cmu.edu
Thomas W. Malone, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, 617-253-6843, email: malone@mit.edu
Related Websites
Science: Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1193147
CMU News Release: http://www.cmu.edu/news/
MIT News Release: http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/collective-intel.html
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