Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States of America.
Collective Intelligence Research Group, IT University of Copenhagen, København, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 4;16(11):e0244907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244907. eCollection 2021.
Groups with higher cognitive diversity, i.e. variations in how people think and solve problems, are thought to contribute to improved performance in complex problem-solving. However, embracing or even engineering adequate cognitive diversity is not straightforward and may even jeopardize social inclusion. In response, those that want to promote cognitive diversity might make a simplified assumption that there exists a link between identity diversity, i.e. range of social characteristics, and variations in how people perceive and solve problems. If this assumption holds true, incorporating diverse identities may concurrently achieve cognitive diversity to the extent essential for complex problem-solving, while social inclusion is explicitly acknowledged. However, currently there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this hypothesis in the context of complex social-ecological systems-a system wherein human and environmental dimensions are interdependent, where common-pool resources are used or managed by multiple types of stakeholders. Using a fisheries example, we examine the relationship between resource stakeholders' identities and their cognitive diversity. We used cognitive mapping techniques in conjunction with network analysis to measure cognitive distances within and between stakeholders of various social types (i.e., identities). Our results empirically show that groups with higher identity diversity also demonstrate more cognitive diversity, evidenced by disparate characteristics of their cognitive maps that represent their understanding of fishery dynamics. These findings have important implications for sustainable management of common-pool resources, where the inclusion of diverse stakeholders is routine, while our study shows it may also achieve higher cognitive coverage that can potentially lead to more complete, accurate, and innovative understanding of complex resource dynamics.
具有更高认知多样性的群体，即人们思考和解决问题的方式的差异，被认为有助于提高复杂问题解决中的绩效。然而，接受甚至设计足够的认知多样性并不简单，甚至可能危及社会包容。为了应对这一挑战，那些希望促进认知多样性的人可能会做出一个简化的假设，即存在一个联系，即身份多样性（即社会特征的范围）与人们感知和解决问题的方式之间的差异。如果这一假设成立，那么纳入多样化的身份可能同时实现认知多样性，达到解决复杂问题所必需的程度，同时明确承认社会包容。然而，目前缺乏实证证据支持这一假设，即在复杂的社会生态系统中，人类和环境维度相互依存，共同的池塘资源由多种类型的利益相关者使用或管理。本文以渔业为例，考察了资源利益相关者身份与其认知多样性之间的关系。我们使用认知图技术结合网络分析来衡量各种社会类型（即身份）的利益相关者内部和之间的认知距离。我们的研究结果表明，身份多样性更高的群体也表现出更高的认知多样性，这体现在他们的认知图的不同特征上，这些特征代表了他们对渔业动态的理解。这些发现对共同池塘资源的可持续管理具有重要意义，在共同池塘资源的管理中，多样化的利益相关者的参与是常规的，而我们的研究表明，它也可以实现更高的认知覆盖，从而有可能对复杂资源动态有更完整、准确和创新的理解。
