A Recipe for Dyadic Collective Intelligence for Well-Structured Tasks: Mix Equal Parts Cognitive Ability and Confidence Plus a Pinch of Social Sensitivity

A collective intelligence factor (CI) was introduced by prior research to characterize the cognitive ability of groups. Surprisingly, individual intelligence did not predict CI. Instead, it correlated with individual social sensitivity, the equality of conversational turn-taking and the proportion of females in a group. However, these findings may depend on the type of tasks completed by groups. Our study re-examined these relationships by (1) testing the robustness of the CI factor in dyads using well-structured tasks guided by the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence; (2) exploring the relationship between dyadic CI and metacognitive confidence, which is known to influence group processes and outcomes; and (3) identifying the psychological characteristics of distinct dyad types using Latent Profile Analysis.We measured CI in 105 undergraduate dyads using three group tasks aligned with the broad abilities of the CHC model. Individual intelligence was assessed using Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. We also measured social sensitivity, proportion of females, equality of turn taking, working memory, and personality.Results indicated that individual intelligence and confidence were the strongest predictors of dyadic CI for well-structured tasks, contrasting with previous findings emphasizing social factors. While we replicated the relationship with social sensitivity, we did not replicate the findings for equality of turn taking or gender composition. Latent Profile Analysis identified three psychological profiles: dyads performing consistently high individually and collectively, those performing consistently low, and those performing better collectively than individually. Our ‘smarter’ dyads consisted of intelligent and confident individuals with higher social sensitivity.These findings suggest that, in dyads performing well-structured tasks, individual cognitive abilities and confidence play significant roles in CI. This challenges the emphasis on social factors and underscores the importance of task selection.