The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

Scott E. Page

Overview: The Difference uses modeling approaches based on formal logic to rigorously describe the types of issues and conditions for which “diversity trumps homogeneity and ability” in collective problem solving and prediction, and when diversity is less relevant to outcomes.

In Part I, Page describes four frameworks for how people see the world differently, including perspectives, interpretations, heuristics, and predictive models (8). Part II presents model problems using the frameworks of Part I to describe how and when diversity produces collective benefits for problem solving and prediction. Part III discusses the difference between fundamental preferences and instrumental preferences, and their impacts on the potential benefits of diversity (11-12). The final part addresses questions about the empirical validity of Page’s analysis supporting the book’s three core claims, which are 1. Diverse perspectives and tools enable collections of people to find more and better solutions and contribute to overall productivity, 2. Diverse predictive models enable crowds of people to predict values accurately, and 3. Diverse fundamental preferences frustrate the process of making choices (13).