Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face
Recent research with face-to-face groups found that a measure of general group effectiveness (called “collective intelligence”) predicted a group’s performance on a wide range of different tasks. The same research also found that collective intelligence was correlated with the individual group membe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92481 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7005-1482 |
| _version_ | 1811074424357519360 |
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| author | Engel, David Woolley, Anita Williams Jing, Lisa X. Chabris, Christopher F. Malone, Thomas W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Collective Intelligence |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Collective Intelligence Engel, David Woolley, Anita Williams Jing, Lisa X. Chabris, Christopher F. Malone, Thomas W. |
| author_sort | Engel, David |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Recent research with face-to-face groups found that a measure of general group effectiveness (called “collective intelligence”) predicted a group’s performance on a wide range of different tasks. The same research also found that collective intelligence was correlated with the individual group members’ ability to reason about the mental states of others (an ability called “Theory of Mind” or “ToM”). Since ToM was measured in this work by a test that requires participants to “read” the mental states of others from looking at their eyes (the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test), it is uncertain whether the same results would emerge in online groups where these visual cues are not available. Here we find that: (1) a collective intelligence factor characterizes group performance approximately as well for online groups as for face-to-face groups; and (2) surprisingly, the ToM measure is equally predictive of collective intelligence in both face-to-face and online groups, even though the online groups communicate only via text and never see each other at all. This provides strong evidence that ToM abilities are just as important to group performance in online environments with limited nonverbal cues as they are face-to-face. It also suggests that the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test measures a deeper, domain-independent aspect of social reasoning, not merely the ability to recognize facial expressions of mental states. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:49:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/92481 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:49:15Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/924812022-09-26T13:55:26Z Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face Engel, David Woolley, Anita Williams Jing, Lisa X. Chabris, Christopher F. Malone, Thomas W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Collective Intelligence Sloan School of Management Malone, Thomas W. Engel, David Woolley, Anita Williams Jing, Lisa X. Chabris, Christopher F. Recent research with face-to-face groups found that a measure of general group effectiveness (called “collective intelligence”) predicted a group’s performance on a wide range of different tasks. The same research also found that collective intelligence was correlated with the individual group members’ ability to reason about the mental states of others (an ability called “Theory of Mind” or “ToM”). Since ToM was measured in this work by a test that requires participants to “read” the mental states of others from looking at their eyes (the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test), it is uncertain whether the same results would emerge in online groups where these visual cues are not available. Here we find that: (1) a collective intelligence factor characterizes group performance approximately as well for online groups as for face-to-face groups; and (2) surprisingly, the ToM measure is equally predictive of collective intelligence in both face-to-face and online groups, even though the online groups communicate only via text and never see each other at all. This provides strong evidence that ToM abilities are just as important to group performance in online environments with limited nonverbal cues as they are face-to-face. It also suggests that the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test measures a deeper, domain-independent aspect of social reasoning, not merely the ability to recognize facial expressions of mental states. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-0963285) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ACI-1322254) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-0963451) United States. Army Research Office (Grant 56692-MA) United States. Army Research Office (Grant 64079-NS) Cisco Systems, Inc. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Collective Intelligence 2014-12-23T20:02:25Z 2014-12-23T20:02:25Z 2014-12 2014-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92481 Engel, David, Anita Williams Woolley, Lisa X. Jing, Christopher F. Chabris, and Thomas W. Malone. “Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading Between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face.” Edited by Marina A. Pavlova. PLoS ONE 9, no. 12 (December 16, 2014): e115212. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7005-1482 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115212 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Public Library of Science Public Library of Science |
| spellingShingle | Engel, David Woolley, Anita Williams Jing, Lisa X. Chabris, Christopher F. Malone, Thomas W. Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title | Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title_full | Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title_fullStr | Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title_short | Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face |
| title_sort | reading the mind in the eyes or reading between the lines theory of mind predicts collective intelligence equally well online and face to face |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92481 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7005-1482 |
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