Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2025
08:24
The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
603
Disagreeing Perspectives Enhance Inner-Crowd Wisdom for Difficult (but Not Easy) Questions.
Philippe P F M Van de Calseyde1, Emir Efendić2
1Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology.
Psychological Science
|March 24, 2025
Summary
Encouraging disagreement within groups improves accuracy on difficult questions but harms accuracy on easy ones. This finding highlights the importance of question difficulty in collective intelligence research.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Collective Intelligence
Background:
- Previous research suggested that adopting a disagreeing perspective enhances the accuracy of group estimates by increasing diversity.
- A recent reanalysis challenged these findings, indicating no accuracy improvement and suggesting the role of question variability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To reconcile conflicting findings in inner-crowd research regarding the effect of disagreeing perspectives on accuracy.
- To investigate the moderating role of question difficulty in the relationship between disagreeing perspectives and estimation accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Conducted three preregistered experiments with a total of 2,884 online adult participants from the US and UK.
- Differentiated between easy and difficult questions to assess their impact on the effectiveness of disagreeing perspectives.
Main Results:
- Results confirmed that taking a disagreeing perspective is beneficial for difficult questions.
- Conversely, adopting a disagreeing perspective was found to be detrimental to accuracy on easier questions.
Conclusions:
- Question difficulty is a critical factor that moderates the impact of disagreeing perspectives on the accuracy of aggregate estimates.
- Future interventions aimed at enhancing collective intelligence through diversity should consider question difficulty as a key variable.
Related Concept Videos
01:34Groupthink
44.0K
When in group settings, we are often influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around us. Groupthink is another phenomenon of conformity where modification of the opinions of members in a group aligns with what they believe is the group consensus (Janis, 1972). In such situations, the group often takes action that individuals would not perform outside the group setting because groups make more extreme decisions than individuals do. Moreover, groupthink can hinder opposing trains of...
44.0K
01:31In- and Out-Groups
38.7K
People all belong to a gender, race, age, and social economic group. These groups provide a powerful source of our identity and self-esteem (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and serve as our in-groups. An in-group is a group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to.
38.7K
01:38Cognitive Dissonance
32.3K
Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
32.3K
01:23Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
83
In a study where individuals posing as strangers offered compliments and proposed casual sex to students, the responses differed significantly based on gender. Not a single woman accepted the proposal, while 70% of the men agreed. This outcome provides a useful scenario to explore through the lens of evolutionary psychology and social learning theory, highlighting the diverse perspectives on human sexual behaviors.
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
83
01:31Confirmation Biases
5.4K
The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?
5.4K
01:19Critical Thinking
64
Critical thinking involves reflective and productive thinking and the evaluation of evidence. Critical thinkers seek to understand the deeper meaning of ideas, question assumptions, and make independent decisions about what to believe or do. Scientists, for instance, are often critical thinkers. Critical thinking also requires humility about what we know and don't know and the motivation to look beyond the obvious. It is essential for effective problem-solving.
Colleges and universities are...
Colleges and universities are...
64