Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups

Psychologists have repeatedly shown that a single statistical factor--often called "general intelligence"--emerges from the correlations among people's performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks. But no one has systematically examined whether a similar kind of "collective i...

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Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2010-10, Vol.330 (6004), p.686-688
Main Authors: Woolley, Anita Williams, Chabris, Christopher F, Pentland, Alex, Hashmi, Nada, Malone, Thomas W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive tasks
Correlation
Correlation analysis
Emotional Intelligence
Factor analysis
Female
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Group dynamics
Group mind
Group performance
Group Processes
Human
Humans
Intellectual and cognitive abilities
Intelligence
Intelligence tests
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Middle Aged
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Regression Analysis
Sex Factors
Social interaction
Social Perception
Social psychology
Statistical variance
Tasks
Young Adult
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description Psychologists have repeatedly shown that a single statistical factor--often called "general intelligence"--emerges from the correlations among people's performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks. But no one has systematically examined whether a similar kind of "collective intelligence" exists for groups of people. In two studies with 699 people, working in groups of two to five, we find converging evidence of a general collective intelligence factor that explains a group's performance on a wide variety of tasks. This "c factor" is not strongly correlated with the average or maximum individual intelligence of group members but is correlated with the average social sensitivity of group members, the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of females in the group.
doi_str_mv 10.1126/science.1193147
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source Science Magazine; JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection; Alma/SFX Local Collection
subjects Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive tasks
Correlation
Correlation analysis
Emotional Intelligence
Factor analysis
Female
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Group dynamics
Group mind
Group performance
Group Processes
Human
Humans
Intellectual and cognitive abilities
Intelligence
Intelligence tests
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Middle Aged
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Regression Analysis
Sex Factors
Social interaction
Social Perception
Social psychology
Statistical variance
Tasks
Young Adult
title Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups
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