More people are using the internet to work together on solving problems or creating new things. But not all online groups collaborate well. A study from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business looked at how computer-generated hints, or “nudges,” can help teams work better together. The results showed that these nudges had different levels of success in improving teamwork.

“The explosion of new tools and modes of collaboration requires ongoing experimentation to find ways to support this kind of teamwork,” the researchers explain. “This study was an initial ‘proof of concept’ investigation of how online algorithm-based facilitators can enhance collaboration in teams.”

More people are teaming up online to tackle tasks like creating software or solving complex problems. However, there aren’t many set rules for how this kind of work should be done. A potential solution comes from behavioral economics and its concept of “nudges” – gentle prompts that guide behavior without taking away individual freedom.

Improving teamwork

To see if nudges could improve teamwork, a study gathered over 500 workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk and placed them in nearly 170 temporary online groups. Each group, consisting mostly of men with an average age of 35, received different nudges to encourage specific collaborative processes proven to boost teamwork.

The study revealed that a nudge prompting group members to discuss their skills and how to use them for joint tasks improved collective intelligence. However, another nudge encouraging discussions on dividing tasks and assigning roles had no positive effect.

Surprisingly, two nudges had negative impacts. One that encouraged collaborators to discuss task assignments and update progress resulted in weaker task strategies and indirectly lowered collective intelligence. Similarly, a nudge providing real-time feedback on each member’s effort backfired, significantly reducing the total level of effort and indirectly harming collective intelligence.

“Even though our study yielded a mix of results, our findings suggest a role for digital nudges, particularly those that use more sophisticated artificial social intelligence, to enhance collective intelligence,” the authors conclude. “Our findings also serve as a cautionary tale: Even simple and well-intentioned digital tools can have unintended psychological effects and may cause more harm than benefit to collaboration.”