The Efficiency of Team Reasoning

Is team reasoning more efficient than individual reasoning? It should be, as by definition it is supposed to lead individuals to adopt collectively optimal strategies. Indeed, it has been argued that team reasoning is more rationally efficient and can be more evolutionarily viable than individual reasoning. This paper provides reasons that mitigate both claims, which I argue rely on an underestimation of the efficiency of individual reasoning and on an overestimation of the coordinating power of team reasoning. Once these are corrected, the efficiency of team reasoning turns out to be equivocal. At the rational level, the superior efficiency of team reasoning depends on specific conditions regarding the nature of the interactive situation and the general probability that individuals team reason. At the evolutionary level, both the stability and the appearance of team reasoning become puzzling.