Nominally individuals, they also have such a strong commonality of purpose and a strong telepathic ability (as Earthlings would describe it, at least) that it is debatable whether theirs is truly an individual or group (collective) consciousness.
Also nominally peaceful and contemplative, they also have such an overriding passion for exploration that they will frequently completely fail to respect the "rights" of another, if that other is between them and their goal, or if that other is the goal. This is the origin of the persistent stories among human abductees of the invasive procedures experienced during abduction experiences.
They also never grow tired of verifying results, of collecting additional data for "further corroboration" no matter how many decimal places the data is already accurate to.
All these characteristics put together are why they are listed as "unpredictable" rather than neutral. Neutral by disposition, their actions often anything but.