This is even more apparent at a pub quiz event where other individual skills are relevant, such as connectedness and, at Qwizard events, being up-to-date with current affairs.
But there is another more important element in teams. A researcher from Carnegie Mellon University named Anita Williams Woolley proved that what mattered more than individual intelligence of teams was communication. This includes factors such as social cues and the equality of communication. The most important point was that the best teams solicit contributions from all members of the team and listen to one another. Woolley’s work was summarised in the 2018 book ‘The Formula’, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.
So how does this research effect pub quiz teams and their performance? Well, teams need to avoid groupthink that may result from over-confident or dominant team members; teams need to listen to all possible answers that put forward; and probably most importantly, teams need a team captain who is capable of identifying and managing all inputs.
Oh, the research also identified that teams with female members exhibited higher collective intelligence because of their ability to facilitate input from all team members.