A group’s social interconnectedness outweighs individual intelligence in producing innovation
Evidence
Well, among the Geniuses a bit fewer than 1 out of 5 individuals (18%) will end up with the invention. Half of those Geniuses will have figured it out all by themselves. Meanwhile, 99.9% of Butterflies will have the innovation, but only 0.1% will have figured it out by themselves. Keep in mind that the Geniuses were 100 times smarter than the Butterflies whereas the Butterflies were only 10 times more social. Bottom line: if you want to have cool technology, it’s better to be social than smart. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 694
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in social-learning biases and their coercive exploitation — if sociality trumps smarts for innovation, then manipulating who is copied (‘models’) is a lever on cultural outcomes. — connects to: Learning from five models beats learning from one in a controlled transmission chain — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 698; Collective brain size, not individual intelligence, may have driven Neanderthal replacement — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 736; Effective community norms constrain behavior and suppress beneficial innovation — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 110 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Effective community norms constrain behavior and suppress beneficial innovation
#complicates(0.85) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 110 - Group cohesion grows from networked personal bonds, not mere shared categories
#expands(0.80) — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 52 - Social capital constrains behavior even as it enables it, reducing innovativeness.
#qualifies(0.80) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 111