Barkoczi,D.
Galesic,M.

The structure of communication networks is an important determinant of the capacity of teams, organizations, and societies to solve policy, business, and science problems. Yet, previous studies reached contradictory results about the relationship between network structure and performance, finding support for the superiority of both efficient and inefficient network structures. Here we argue that understanding how communication networks affect collective performance requires taking into consideration the social learning strategies of individual team members. We show that different social learning strategies lead to remarkably different outcomes in different communication networks. Specifically, efficient networks outperform the inefficient networks when individuals rely on the conformity strategy. However, inefficient networks are superior when team members rely on the best member strategy. In addition, we find that collectives relying on conformity based on a small sample of other individuals excel on complex tasks, while collectives following the best member achieve best performance for simple tasks. Our findings reconcile contradictory results in the literature, and have broad implications for the study of social learning across disciplines.

Barkoczi, D., & Galesic, M. (2016). Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance. Nature Communications, 7:13109. doi:10.1038/ncomms13109 (Full text)

Publication year	2016
Document type:	Article
Publication status:	Published
External URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13109 View
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