Collective intelligence in groups is intricately linked to social intelligence, particularly social perceptiveness, participation, and gender balance. When we attempted to simultaneously predict collective intelligence using these three factors, only social perceptiveness emerged as statistically significant. This suggests that social perceptiveness might be the common thread connecting the other factors. For instance, it could explain the impact of gender, as socially perceptive individuals may also be more likely to participate actively in group discussions. An illuminating finding from an online group study reinforced the importance of social perceptiveness. It showed that individuals with high social perceptiveness exhibited equally strong collective intelligence, irrespective of whether they were interacting face-to-face or online, indicating that social perceptiveness extends to a wide range of interpersonal skills vital for successful collaboration in various contexts, both physical and digital.