When Are Groups More Intelligent Than Individuals?

The goal of our proposed work is to provide a systematic framework for understanding the impact of group interactions and decisions on the emergent group intelligence. Our focus will be on investigating the effects of individual strategic behavior and objectives, and the network structure on the resulting outcomes.

Despite the fact that most social decisions are made in groups, our understanding of group decision making is much more limited than individual decision making. Moreover, while in most social settings, individuals interact with each other over sparse limited transparency networks, most of the existing literature in social sciences studies markets where all interactions are anonymous (implicitly assuming that anybody can interact and trade with anybody else).

The goal of our proposed work is to provide a systematic framework for understanding the impact of group interactions and decisions on the emergent group intelligence. Our focus will be on investigating the effects of individual behavior and objectives, and the network structure on the resulting outcomes. Our proposed effort will involve both development of analytical models for representing individual behavior and strategic interactions among agents, and also design of experiments for testing different features and predictions of these models. Our research will address two general sets of issues that fall under the general umbrella of group evolution and intelligence: information dynamics and decisions in groups in the presence of game-theoretic interactions; and exchange and trades in groups

References:

D. Acemoglu, M. Dahleh, I. Lobel, and A. Ozdaglar, ``Bayesian learning in social networks'', Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming, 2010.

D. Acemoglu, A. Ozdaglar, and A. ParandehGheibi, ``Spread of (mis)information in social networks'', Games and Economic Behavior, forthcoming, 2009.

A. Mani, A. Ozdaglar, and A.  Pentland, ``Bilateral Exchanges in Social Networks," working paper, 2010.

A. Mani, and  A. Pentland, ``Exchanging Favors in Social Networks," working paper, 2010.

Members Profiles

Project Members

Alex (Sandy) Pentland
Asu Ozdaglar

Go to members profiles

Events

MIT150 Symposia: Brains, Minds and Machines

MIT will celebrate its 150th anniversary during the spring semester of 2011. In addition to a variety of other programs that will celebrate the past and envision the future, the MIT150 will sponsor a series of five symposia. Three core members of the MIT Intelligence Initiative - Josh Tenenbaum, Irene Heim and Tomaso Poggio - have been awarded the task of organizing a symposium entitled Brains, Minds and Machines which is scheduled for May 3-5, 2011.

MIT Intelligence Initiative (I²) Workshop

An all day workshop to be held at the American Academy of Arts and Science, Norton Woods Conference Center.

By invitation only.

News

I² Seed Grant Awards

Thanks to the help and generosity of Dean Marc Kastner, and the other MIT deans, I² is now glad to announce the support of eleven I² Seed Projects. Several worthwhile projects could not be funded at this time but hopefully they will be funded at a later date.

MIT Intelligence Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships

We are now accepting applications for the MIT Intelligence Initiative (I2) Postdoctoral Fellowships. This program is designed to enhance and showcase interdisciplinary research on intelligence at MIT. The fellowship will be awarded only to candidates with strong scientific accomplishments and who propose innovative research bridging at least two different MIT labs. Current postdoctoral fellows/associates may apply as well as any recent PhD graduates (PhD program requirements must be completed prior to start of postdoctoral fellowship.)

Course 9.S915: "What is Intelligence?" Fall 2011

Class Times: Friday 11:00-2:00 pm
Units: 3-0-9
Location: 46-5193
Instructors: Shimon Ullman and Tomaso Poggio