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

<jats:title>Meeting of Minds</jats:title> <jats:p> The performance of humans across a range of different kinds of cognitive tasks has been encapsulated as a common statistical factor called <jats:italic>g</jats:italic> or general intelligence factor. What intelligence actually is, is unclear and hotly debated, yet there is a reproducible association of <jats:italic>g</jats:italic> with performance outcomes, such as income and academic achievement. <jats:bold> Woolley <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="686" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="330" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1193147">686</jats:related-article> , published online 30 September) report a psychometric methodology for quantifying a factor termed “collective intelligence” ( <jats:italic>c</jats:italic> ), which reflects how well groups perform on a similarly diverse set of group problem-solving tasks. The primary contributors to <jats:italic>c</jats:italic> appear to be the <jats:italic>g</jats:italic> factors of the group members, along with a propensity toward social sensitivity—in essence, how well individuals work with others. </jats:p>