Not Meeting Face to Face Leads to Better Decisions?

Fascinating!

Scott Armstrong of Wharton has recently polled the mailing lists of decision experts looking for evidence that face-to-face meetings lead to more accurate forecasts and better decisions than alternatives such as virtual teams or prediction markets. He found non. Evidence-based Armstrong comes down on the side of the prediction that face to face meetings are less effective than more efficient alternatives.

To learn more, read the readable article in Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting.

While at first surprising, I can certainly believe these findings. (Depending on the nature of the problem to be solved.) We humans are very social animals and I can believe that our natural proclivity for socialization can sometimes unconciously skew our decision-making process when we are around others we respect or like.