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Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance

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 supp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barkoczi, Daniel, Galesic, Mirta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27713417
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13109
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author Barkoczi, Daniel
Galesic, Mirta
author_facet Barkoczi, Daniel
Galesic, Mirta
author_sort Barkoczi, Daniel
collection PubMed
description 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 well-connected efficient and poorly connected inefficient network structures. Here we argue that understanding how communication networks affect group performance requires taking into consideration the social learning strategies of individual team members. We show that efficient networks outperform inefficient networks when individuals rely on conformity by copying the most frequent solution among their contacts. However, inefficient networks are superior when individuals follow the best member by copying the group member with the highest payoff. In addition, groups relying on conformity based on a small sample of others excel at complex tasks, while groups following the best member achieve greatest performance for simple tasks. Our findings reconcile contradictory results in the literature and have broad implications for the study of social learning across disciplines.
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spelling pubmed-50597782016-10-26 Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance Barkoczi, Daniel Galesic, Mirta Nat Commun Article 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 well-connected efficient and poorly connected inefficient network structures. Here we argue that understanding how communication networks affect group performance requires taking into consideration the social learning strategies of individual team members. We show that efficient networks outperform inefficient networks when individuals rely on conformity by copying the most frequent solution among their contacts. However, inefficient networks are superior when individuals follow the best member by copying the group member with the highest payoff. In addition, groups relying on conformity based on a small sample of others excel at complex tasks, while groups following the best member achieve greatest performance for simple tasks. Our findings reconcile contradictory results in the literature and have broad implications for the study of social learning across disciplines. Nature Publishing Group 2016-10-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5059778/ /pubmed/27713417 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13109 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Barkoczi, Daniel
Galesic, Mirta
Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title_full Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title_fullStr Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title_full_unstemmed Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title_short Social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
title_sort social learning strategies modify the effect of network structure on group performance
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27713417
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13109
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