Task complexity moderates group synergy

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Alsobay, Mohammed; Yin, Ming; Watts, Duncan J.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2101062118

Cited by 61 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Finally, we note that we only studied one class of tasks: numerical estimation with a non-negative, objective truth. Relevant research on other classes of tasks has similarly demonstrated that variation in context features, such as complexity 33 – 38 , fundamentally alter collective problem-solving outcomes. Also worth noting is our focus on tasks involving social influence when, in reality, we should not rule out the possibility that simply aggregating individuals’ pre-influence estimates might be an appropriate, costless solution for some situations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution of initial estimates moderates the effect of social influence on the wisdom of the crowd

Almaatouq

Rahimian

Burton

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Whether, and under what conditions, groups exhibit “crowd wisdom” has been a major focus of research across the social and computational sciences. Much of this work has focused on the role of social influence in promoting the wisdom of the crowd versus leading the crowd astray and has resulted in conflicting conclusions about how social network structure determines the impact of social influence. Here, we demonstrate that it is not enough to consider the network structure in isolation. Using theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and reanalysis of four experimental datasets (totaling 2885 human subjects), we find that the wisdom of crowds critically depends on the interaction between (i) the centralization of the social influence network and (ii) the distribution of the initial individual estimates. By adopting a framework that integrates both the structure of the social influence and the distribution of the initial estimates, we bring previously conflicting results under one theoretical framework and clarify the effects of social influence on the wisdom of crowds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution of initial estimates moderates the effect of social influence on the wisdom of the crowd

Almaatouq

Rahimian

Burton

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…The nature and complexity of the problem to be overcome determines whether quick dissemination of partial solutions or improvements through efficient networks is most beneficial to the group. Generally, groups solve problems more efficiently than individuals (Mason and Watts 2012), as long as the task is complex enough to warrant organizational efforts in allocating tasks and assembling results (Almaatouq et al 2021). Well-connected groups find good solutions faster than sparsely connected groups (Derex and Boyd 2016;Lazer and Friedman 2007), as incremental improvements spread quickly and are adopted by most of the group.…”

Section: Q5 What Population-level Characteristics Affect the Degree O...mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Makes Inventions Become Traditions?

Perry

Carter

Foster

et al. 2022

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Although anthropology was the first academic discipline to investigate cultural change, many other disciplines have made noteworthy contributions to understanding what influences the adoption of new behaviors. Drawing on a broad, interdisciplinary literature covering both humans and nonhumans, we examine ( a) which features of behavioral traits make them more transmissible, ( b) which individual characteristics of inventors promote copying of their inventions, ( c) which characteristics of individuals make them more prone to adopting new behaviors, ( d) which characteristics of dyadic relationships promote cultural transmission, ( e) which properties of groups (e.g., network structures) promote transmission of traits, and ( f) which characteristics of groups promote retention, rather than extinction, of cultural traits. One of anthropology's strengths is its readiness to adopt and improve theories and methods from other disciplines, integrating them into a more holistic approach; hence, we identify approaches that might be particularly useful to biological and cultural anthropologists, and knowledge gaps that should be filled.

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“…Despite the recent evolution of the epistemological trends discussed above, creativity research has seldom appreciated the extent to which distributed interaction properties play a role in creative processes (Kurtzberg and Amabile, 2001;Lebuda et al, 2016;Almaatouq et al, 2021). Instead, ideas are still most often thought to be born out of individual minds before they reach the world, and therefore others (Wheeler, 2018).…”

Section: Creativity As a Distributed Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

A distributed model of collective creativity in free play

Kalaydjian¹,

Laroche

Noy

et al. 2022

Front. Educ.

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A group of children engaged in collective free play can spontaneously create new rules, learn to follow them, or find opportunities to break established ones. This rule-playing can be considered as a specific manifestation of the more general phenomenon of collective creativity. In behavioral sciences, collective creativity is often discussed as a collection of individuals each being creative. An alternative perspective views collective creativity as a distributed phenomenon: collective creativity is not a property of individual agents but rather, it emerges from the interactions within a group. Approaching free play as a case of distributed collective creativity, we understand rule-playing in terms of two complementary modes – group exploration and group exploitation-, and the transition between them. Free play is not easily amenable to fine-grained observational analysis. To overcome this, we developed the Grid Game, a new experimental setup which supports detailed empirical investigation while preserving the essence of free play. The Grid Game is a group improvisation game that uses the turn taking logic and spatial organization of typical board games, without any other predefined rules. Small groups of kids (4–5 participants) took turns in freely moving or manipulating a provided set of objects on a large 4 × 4 grid on the floor for 10 min, while being video-recorded. Despite the absence of predefined goals, simple proto-games with ad hoc rules often emerge, for example, placing objects on top of each other (create a tower) or an aiming-to-a-target shooting game. We propose an analysis of the emergence of such proto-games in terms of group exploration and exploitation. Building on our previous work on the Creative Foraging Game, we focus on cases of transition from exploration to exploitation underlying the discovery of a new form or rule. Based on Choreographer João Fiadeiro’s body of work, we describe these phase shifts as a distributed process composed of three stages: (1) Suggestion, (2) Recognition, and (3) Confirmation. We provide detailed descriptions of game moments according to this model which demonstrate the distributed nature of collective creativity in free play.

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Task complexity moderates group synergy

Cited by 61 publications

References 55 publications

The distribution of initial estimates moderates the effect of social influence on the wisdom of the crowd

The distribution of initial estimates moderates the effect of social influence on the wisdom of the crowd

What Makes Inventions Become Traditions?

A distributed model of collective creativity in free play

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