A new study by researchers at Florida State University shows that the “group decision-making process may work best when members process information a bit differently.” This according to an article in Phys.org.

Bhargav Karamched, a mathematics professor and member of the research team, found that decision-making networks that consisted of “both impulsive and deliberate individuals made, on average, quicker and better decisions than a group with homogenous thinkers,” the article reports.

According to Karamched, “the first decision is quickly made by an impulsive individual who needs little evidence to make a choice. But, even when wrong, this fast decision can reveal the correct options to everyone else. This is not the case in homogeneous groups.”

Although information sharing in networks has been studied extensively, Karamched says, little has been done on how individuals in a network integrate information from their peers with their own accumulated evidence. Instead, most studies have focused on how isolated individuals gather evidence to make a choice.

The study’s senior author, mathematics professor Kresimir Josic, explains that the decision-making process works best when individuals in a group apply their varied backgrounds to collect materials and knowledge to make a final decision: “Collective social decision making is valuable if all individuals have access to different  types of information.”