Group IQ

[Michael]

This is an interesting article that asserts that groups are usually smarter than the individuals who comprise the group.

Group IQ

What makes one team of people smarter than another? A new field of research finds surprising answers.

...
A striking study led by an MIT Sloan School of Management professor shows that teams of people display a collective intelligence that has surprisingly little to do with the intelligence of the team’s individual members. Group intelligence, the researchers discovered, is not strongly tied to either the average intelligence of the members or the team’s smartest member. And this collective intelligence was more than just an arbitrary score: When the group grappled with a complex task, the researchers found it was an excellent predictor of how well the team performed.

The new work is part of a growing body of research that focuses on understanding collective behavior and intelligence — an increasingly relevant topic of research in an age where everything from scientific progress to entrepreneurial success hinges on collaboration. Embedded in a century’s worth of Broadway shows, the interactions of online communities, or the path a ball travels between soccer players, researchers are finding hints about how individual people contribute to make a group creative and successful.

Source (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/12/19/group_iq/?page=full)

This is very interesting material. It could be a boon to democracy theorists wrestling with the problem of stupid voters! :lol:

[JHC]

This is an interesting article that asserts that groups are usually smarter than the individuals who comprise the group.



Source (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/12/19/group_iq/?page=full)

This is very interesting material. It could be a boon to democracy theorists wrestling with the problem of stupid voters! :lol:

Did it surprise you to read about this?
I hate working with other people in a group but I can't work completely alone. I need someone to edit my work because I know that I am not the perfect authority on everything. Even stupid people correct me sometimes. :sneaky:
I also realize that I have a limited range of perspective because I have a limited history from which to draw.
I just don't like being interrupted in thought or when I vocalize.
So it doesn't surprise me one bit that a group collaboration is better than any individual effort.

[JHC]

Actually, what does surprise me is that this thread didn't get more attention. Group dynamics is an interesting topic

[Michael]

Actually, what does surprise me is that this thread didn't get more attention. Group dynamics is an interesting topic

Apparently the group dynamics here don't always work out the way one might like. :shrug:

[The Drunk Guy]

Apparently the group dynamics here don't always work out the way one might like. :shrug:
Is that a.....no it can't be.


But what else could it be?


Hmm....

:ummm:

.....Michael, is that a joke?

[Michael]

Is that a.....no it can't be.


But what else could it be?


Hmm....

:ummm:

.....Michael, is that a joke?

No, it is not a joke. It is more of a comment on the fact that I can't predict what topics will be popular and which topics will not be. :shrug:

Apparently JHC was as surprised by this one as I was.

[evanescence]

I'm surprised by this because I would have thought that it would average out. If the highest IQ is 150 and the lowest was 100, and there were several more people with IQs in the middle, wouldn't it just average out somewhere around 125 or 130.

Personally, I hate working in groups. I have a group speech next month and it always seems like at least one person wont pull their weight. :mad:

[drgoodtrips]

I'm surprised by this because I would have thought that it would average out. If the highest IQ is 150 and the lowest was 100, and there were several more people with IQs in the middle, wouldn't it just average out somewhere around 125 or 130.

Personally, I hate working in groups. I have a group speech next month and it always seems like at least one person wont pull their weight. :mad:

I would think that the high IQ in the group would serve as a floor for the group's intelligence, assuming that the group was generally cooperative. In the group, all ideas are unlikely to be democratically weighted -- there will be some natural sense of meritocracy, particularly when politics are muted as they might be in a group doing a problem solving exercise.

So, 150 IQ thinks up something brilliant and then moves onto thinking about something else, because that's how divergent thinkers tend to work. Meanwhile, 100 IQ and 120 IQ work together doing more of the grunt work and fleshing out ideas. The 150 IQ idea won't get stupider somehow with others working on its execution. If the other guys get stuck, maybe they ask 150 for some direction or an opinion.

One of the hardest things to do when solving a problem is to toss out all of your initial assumptions. Something I see a lot in the programming sphere is that people tend to fall in love with their own incremental work. Metaphorically speaking, if you decide that you're going to build a table, and you take the four legs and go to all the effort of hammering them together in pairs, you're going to try to build two-legged table and force it to balance. After all, you're pretty close and you don't want to lose all that hard work! The most difficult thing for most people to do is realize that hammering the legs together was stupid, pry them apart, and start over.

In a group situation, it's harder to make progress, so it's harder to fall in love with and be fooled by your own progress. You'll only contribute to part of the idea, so you'll probably remain open to criticizing it for improvement throughout. If everyone is more ready and willing to criticize the product in progress, rather than irrationally defend it, the product will probably look better in the end.

[evanescence]

good point. Also, those with a better personality may have more influence over the group. Often-but not always-those with "better personalities" have lower IQs. So maybe the group IQ would actually go down in some cases. :lol:

[JHC]

I'm surprised by this because I would have thought that it would average out. If the highest IQ is 150 and the lowest was 100, and there were several more people with IQs in the middle, wouldn't it just average out somewhere around 125 or 130.

Personally, I hate working in groups. I have a group speech next month and it always seems like at least one person wont pull their weight. :mad:

If you were in a group of people with IQ's ranging from 120 to 140 and yours was 100, do you think your input would be weighted the same as the person with the IQ of 140?

On the other hand, the folks with higher IQ's will know a better idea when they see it and even if they end up claiming it was their own when it wasn't, that idea increases the over all intelligence of the group.

[JHC]

God damn you Goodtripssssssss!

That's the second time you've done that to me in as many days!
:lol:

[JHC]

good point. Also, those with a better personality may have more influence over the group. Often-but not always-those with "better personalities" have lower IQs. So maybe the group IQ would actually go down in some cases. :lol:

I know that was all said in a lighthearted manner but I have to do this and hope you don't take too much offense...

If one is out of his or her element, they are inclined to view the company as less than stimulating. It may be just as well to be in a room in which one doesn't understand the language of everyone else.

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

[Michael]

Here's a small chart I found on the net...