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There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological processes that underlie it.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
08:29

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Published on: December 18, 2016

When are two heads better than one and why?

Asher Koriat1

  • 1Department of Psychology and Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel. akoriat@research.haifa.ac.il

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|April 21, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Two heads are better than one, but only if they communicate. Relying on the more confident individual in a group can lead to worse decisions when most people are wrong.

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The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
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Last Updated: May 23, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
08:29

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Published on: December 18, 2016

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
06:48

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

Published on: January 19, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Decision Sciences

Background:

  • Group decision-making often outperforms individual judgment.
  • Free communication and shared confidence are key factors in group efficacy.
  • Subjective confidence is a crucial element in understanding judgment accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if group decision-making benefits can be replicated without direct interaction.
  • To examine the role of subjective confidence in individual versus group accuracy.
  • To determine conditions under which group decisions are superior to individual ones.

Main Methods:

  • Replication of a "two heads are better than one" study using a perceptual task.
  • Virtual dyads were employed, removing direct communication.
  • Selection of the more confident member's decision on each trial.
  • Analysis of decision accuracy based on confidence levels and error rates.

Main Results:

  • Reliance on the more confident member replicated the "two heads are better than one" effect.
  • When the majority erred, the more confident member's decision led to poorer outcomes than the best individual decision.
  • Subjective confidence correlates with consensus but not necessarily accuracy.

Conclusions:

  • Group decision-making benefits are not solely dependent on direct communication.
  • The "more confident member" heuristic can be detrimental when consensus is based on widespread error.
  • Understanding the relationship between confidence, consensus, and accuracy is vital for optimizing group performance.