Are distrust relationships beneficial for group performance? The influence of the scope of distrust on the emergence of collective intelligence

Abstract

Collective intelligence is defined as the collective ability of human groups in solving different tasks. It explains why some teams perform better than others by exploiting the power of social relationships, so motivating research on which features of social relationships can improve it. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing the effect of distrust relationships, in which individuals involved tend to make antagonistic decisions, on collective intelligence. Borrowing from previous studies that recognize consensus seeking among self-interested individuals as a critical process for the emergence of collective intelligence, we investigate the relationship between scope of distrust (i.e., the extent to which distrust relationships are spread in the group) and group performance (measured as efficacy to solve a decision making problem), in different conditions of strength and density of social relationships. To do this, we employ a simulation model coming from statistical physics, where collective dynamics is governed by a continuous-time Markov process. Results show that scope of distrust can be beneficial or not for group performance, depending on the value of the strength and the density of social interactions. When the strength (density) of social relationships is too low, any scope of distrust is detrimental for group performance, while when the strength (density) of social relationships is moderately high, low scope of distrust can be useful to improve group performance. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are finally discussed.