New Paper Compares Collective Intelligence in Rats and Roaches

Collective intelligence describes how groups can outperform individuals in decision-making, coordination, and problem-solving. The paper proposes a typology that distinguishes mechanisms including self-organized coordination, distributed decision-making, cooperative problem-solving, statistical aggregation, and cultural improvement.

Key Findings

Cockroaches show collective behavior through evolutionarily older mechanisms that require relatively little cognitive complexity. Rats share important ecological traits with cockroaches but also display social capacities found in primates, including cultural learning, empathy, cooperation, and distributed decision-making.

Comparing the two species shows how similar group-level outcomes can emerge from very different mechanisms and helps distinguish universal features of collective intelligence from those that depend on particular cognitive adaptations.

Citation

Rawlings, B., Vale, G. L., Legare, C., Monfils, M. H., Proctor, D. P., & Brosnan, S. F. (2026). Clever vermin? Collective intelligence in rats and roaches. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 381, 20240441.