Circadian Rhythms and Physiological Synchrony: Evidence of the Impact of Diversity on Small Group Creativity

Circadian rhythms determine daily sleep cycles, mood, and cognition. Depending on an individual's circadian preference, or chronotype (i.e.,``early birds'' and ``night owls''), the rhythms shift earlier or later in the day. Early birds experience circadian arousal peaks earlier in the morning than night owls. Prior work has shown that individuals are more effective at analytic tasks during their peak arousal times but are more creative during their off-peak times. We investigate if these findings hold true for small groups. We find that time of day and a group's majority chronotype impact performance on analytic and creative tasks. Physiological synchrony among group members positively predicts group satisfaction. Specifically, homogeneous groups perform worse on all tasks regardless of time of day, but they achieve greater physiological synchrony and feel more satisfied as a group. Based on these findings, we present and advocate for a temporal dimension of group diversity.