You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well.
I bet that got your attention.
The Daily Mail reports that researchers at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have found"when [people] are put among a peer group of similar intelligence for a sustained period of time they begin to feel intimidated – and their IQ levels actually drop."
For the study, subjects in the same room were given a series of tasks and questions. The subjects' IQ scores were then tallied. But once subjects were informed how their peers performed and then re-tested IQ scores dropped--most significantly for women.
This brings to mind some interesting questions about social norms and behavior as they relate to cognitive function while in groups. Do your delegates think more clearly (and confidently) when they believe in cognitive superiority over their peers?
Image (CC) dombrassey