Re: Diversity of IETF Leadership

[Margaret Wasserman <mrw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 11, 2013, at 6:54 PM, Dan Harkins <dharkins@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 In other words, the statement that gender and racial diversity in
groups makes them "smarter" has no basis in fact. Do you feel that
an all-female group is stupider than a similarly sized group that is
equal parts male and female? Really?

Actually, Dan, there are well-regarded academic studies that show that groups that contain women are smarter than all-male groups, regardless of the relative intelligence of the group members.  Surprising, perhaps, but true.  Here is a pointer to a discussion of one of them:

http://www.antonioyon.com/group-intelligence-and-the-female-factor

There are also numerous studies, of various types, that show that  more diverse groups make better decisions and/or perform better than less diverse groups.  Here is a description of one such study:

http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/better_decisions_through_diversity

So, as illogical as these statements may seem on the surface, they are well-established facts.  Both of the articles I've sited give some insight into why this is true.

Margaret