Advantages of Group Think

 

MAY 22, 2012 tue

Groupthink Can Be Smarter than Personthink

Although groups brainstorm less effectively than individuals, they perform better on certain judgment tasks, perhaps because members learn from each other. Asked to estimate the flight distance between European cities, groups of students averaged 30% fewer errors than individuals, according to a team led by Thomas Schultze of Georg-August-University in Goettingen, Germany. Accuracy can be further increased if members are told which member is most competent, the researchers say.

Source: Why groups perform better than individuals at quantitative judgment tasks: Group-to-individual transfer as an alternative to differential weighting