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Adolescent’s Collective Intelligence: Empirical Evidence in Real and Online Classmates Groups

Author

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  • Enrico Imbimbo

    (Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi, 12, Building 26, 50135 Florence, Italy
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Federica Stefanelli

    (Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi, 12, Building 26, 50135 Florence, Italy
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Andrea Guazzini

    (Center for Study of Complex Dynamics (C.S.D.C), University of Florence, Via Sansone, 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy)

Abstract

Humans create teams to be more successful in a large variety of tasks. Groups are characterized by an emergent property called collective intelligence, which leads them to be smarter than single individuals. Previous studies proved that collective intelligence characterizes both real and online environments, focusing on adults’ performances. In this work, we explored which factors promote group success in an offline and online logical task with adolescents. Five hundred and fifty high school students participated in the experiment and faced Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices, first by themselves using the computer, then in a group. Groups interactions could have been computer-mediated or face-to-face, and the participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions. Results suggest that groups perform better than singles, regardless of the experimental condition. Among adolescents, online groups performance was negatively affected by participants’ average perception of group cohesion, the difficulty of the problem, and the number of communicative exchanges that occur in the interaction. On the contrary, the factors that improve their performances were the average intelligence of the teammates, their levels of neuroticism, and the group heterogeneity in terms of social abilities. This work contributes to the literature with a comprehensive model of collective intelligence among young people.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Imbimbo & Federica Stefanelli & Andrea Guazzini, 2020. "Adolescent’s Collective Intelligence: Empirical Evidence in Real and Online Classmates Groups," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:81-:d:351756
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Patrick R. Laughlin, 2011. "Group Problem Solving," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9339.
    5. Francis Heylighen, 1999. "Collective Intelligence and its Implementation on the Web: Algorithms to Develop a Collective Mental Map," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 253-280, October.
    6. Patrick R. Laughlin, 2011. "Basic Concepts In Group Problem Solving," Introductory Chapters, in: Group Problem Solving, Princeton University Press.
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