title: How common standards can diminish collective intelligence: a computational study.
abstract: Making good decisions depends on having accurate information - quickly, and in a form in which it can be readily communicated and acted upon. Two features of medical practice can help: deliberation in groups and the use of scores and grades in evaluation. We study the contributions of these features using a multi-agent computer simulation of groups of physicians. One might expect individual differences in members' grading standards to reduce the capacity of the group to discover the facts on which well-informed decisions depend. Observations of the simulated groups suggest on the contrary that this kind of diversity can in fact be conducive to epistemic performance. Sometimes, it is adopting common standards that may be expected to result in poor decisions.
authors.affiliation: UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsoe, Norway.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morreau
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Aidan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyon
mesh_terms: D000066491:Clinical Decision-Making / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015588:Observer Variation
keywords: collective intelligence; computer modelling; evaluation; evidence