g versus c: comparing individual and collective intelligence across two meta-analyses

Abstract

Collective intelligence (CI) is said to manifest in a group’s domain general mental ability. It can be measured across a battery of group IQ tests and statistically reduced to a latent factor called the “c-factor.” Advocates have found the c-factor predicts group performance better than individual IQ. We test this claim by meta-analyzing correlations between the c-factor and nine group performance criterion tasks generated by eight independent samples (N = 857 groups). Results indicated a moderate correlation, r, of.26 (95% CI.10,.40). All but four studies comprising five independent samples (N = 366 groups) failed to control for the intelligence of individual members using individual IQ sco..