The web has always been an inherently social place, whether it was the chat rooms and newsgroups of the early web to the enormous social networks that proliferate today.

Suffice to say, the many ways we interact with one another today has given rise to the wisdom of crowds, with examples abound of our apparent collective wisdom.

As this wisdom has taken on commercial and scientific endeavors, it is perhaps not surprising that a growing number of researchers are exploring our online communities to understand just what makes them smart.

The latest such effort is a study from a team of MIT researchers.  They reasoned that things like our ability to empathize and interact with others are key to successful team work, but both are difficult to measure online as we don’t have access to in-person cues.

Understanding the Theory of Mind

One possible alternative arrived via the Theory of Mind (ToM), which describes the ability we have to understand the mental state of someone else, and how that differs from our own.

The ToM has been used to explore the collective intelligence of groups in real life settings, and the authors hypothesized that it could also work online.

They believed that our ability to read the behavior of our peers was fundamental to successful communication, and therefore the intelligence of the group.

About the study

The researchers asked participants to complete a number of tasks, either in real life or via the web.  One of these tasks required them to complete a Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, whereby you’re required to estimate the mood of a person via a photo of their face.

Alternatively, participants were asked to complete a Sudoku puzzle with team mates.  Communication was done via a group chat facility.

The researchers used the personalities of each individual participant to contextualize their position within the group.

The data from this and other group tasks provided a measure of general intelligence among the team.  It emerged that the level of communication coupled with the ToM abilities within the group were a good indicator of the collective wisdom of the team.

Crucially, the medium (ie the online chat room) was no hindrance to the ability of the group to interpret the emotions of their peers or to contribute fully to the tasks at hand.

All of which must be comforting for the various technology vendors who are selling a range of communication tools to support collaboration and collective endeavors within the workplace.

The study highlights how the interactions we have online can be just as effective and productive as any we have in face to face environments, with the web proving no limitation to our ability to understand and collaborate well with our peers.