Across several studies,243 groups with a nonconformist member came up with more—and more creative—ideas than groups in which everyone agreed. Exposure to dissenting views appears to encourage the group to consider lots of alternatives, reexamine their premises, or even just to think harder.244

In a 2001 study,245 for example, researchers examined a parcel delivery service in the Netherlands that was divided up into teams of five or six members. Each member submitted a survey about his or her perceptions of the team, and then the researchers interviewed the workers’ supervisors a few months later.

The workers were asked how often a few of their team members disagreed with the majority of the team, as well as how much all the individual team members took part in the overall decision-making process.

Research assistants then asked the teams’ supervisors about any innovative procedures or methods their teams implemented to improve their work, like making a computer program to keep track of sick leave or building a box in which to keep the address cards.

Among the more democratic teams, in which all the workers took part in the decisions, the teams that had dissenting opinions in their midst came up with more innovative solutions than the teams in which everyone agreed.

Earlier, we learned that people rarely seek friendship with people they disagree with. So why did the teams with dissenters come up with better ideas? It could be that while friendship is about encouragement, innovation requires pushback. The friction of dissent is often what ignites the creative spark, and it takes weirdos to make dissent possible.

The presence of a person who voices a competing perspective to the predominant one of the group has also been found to reduce our tendency to throw good money after bad.246 In a phenomenon called the sunk-cost fallacy, people are tempted to see a terrible idea through to the end once they’ve committed to doing it, even if it seems less and less brilliant as the problems pile up. (Those who have stuck with a terrible TV show or relationship because of the time they’ve already invested know this phenomenon well.) But when there’s a lone dissenter, she pumps the brakes, prompting everyone to question why they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing. In this way, nonconformists can also keep groups from making actively bad decisions.