Individual irrationality,network structure,and collective intelligence: An agent‐based simulation approach

An agent‐based model is constructed to study the effects of individual irrationality and network structure on collective performance. We find that individual irrationality and network density are the most influential factors. Moderate degree of irrationality results in moderate knowledge unity and superior quality of knowledge; increasing network connections or decreasing average path length (APL) can promote quality of knowledge integration and knowledge unity. Furthermore, APL is more influential than clustering coefficient and centralization (CE). Less clustering may contribute to higher quality of knowledge integration, while higher CE may contribute to higher knowledge unity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 44–54, 2016