When it comes to group activities — projects that require teams of people to work on a series of concrete tasks to reach a tangible goal — what do you think is the most important quality that group members should possess? Should they be smart? Should they be assertive? Should they nominate a leader or divide into pairs?
This is the question that psychologist Christopher Chabris has been pondering for several years now. He believes the answer is collective intelligence.
Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Soundcloud
This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Get unlimited access to a huge library of The Great Courses lecture series on many fascinating subjects. Start FOR FREE with Your Deceptive Mind taught by neurologist Steven Novella. Learn about how your mind makes sense of the world by lying to itself and others. Click here for a FREE TRIAL.
This episode is sponsored by Bombfell, an online personal styling service that helps men find the right clothes for them. All you have to do is complete a questionnaire and a dedicated
personal stylist will handpick pieces specifically for you. Then, once you’ve viewed your selections, you’ll have 48 hours to make any changes or even cancel altogether. You only pay for the clothes you keep. Get $25 off your first purchase by using this link.
Support the show directly by becoming a patron! Get episodes one-day-early and ad-free. Head over to the YANSS Patreon Page for more details.
Chabris and his colleagues wondered, if you were to treat a team of people as a single entity, and then measure that entity’s intelligence using the same wide array of tasks psychologists use to measure individual IQ, what would make one group score higher than another?
At first, like most people, he thought that if you wanted to build a team in such a way that you maximized its overall intelligence, you would simply stack it with high-IQ brainiacs. If not smart people, perhaps you would populate it with natural leaders. But his team’s research into collective intelligence suggests that none of these approaches would work.
According to Chabris, to create a team that is collectively intelligent, you likely need to focus on three specific factors that he and his colleagues have identified in their research, and in this episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast, he will tell you all about them and why they seem to matter more than anything else.
Links and Sources
Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Soundcloud
Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups
Why Some Teams Are Smarter Than Others
Defend Your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women
MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
Overview of Challenges to this Research
Effects of crew composition on crew performance: Does the whole equal the sum of its parts?
Do Smarter Teams Do Better? A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Ability and Team Performance
IMAGE: Barn Raising – Leckie’s Barn Completed
You must be logged in to post a comment.