From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Wisdom of the crowd

Wisdom of the crowd

From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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Wisdom of the crowd

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- [Eddie] Mob mentality, group think, tribal instinct, the idea that groups can be easily persuaded by their peers. As such, these groups make horrible decisions and do horrible things. Unfortunately the concept of mob mentality drives the belief that individual people are foolish, and groups of people are powerfully stupid. Thankfully, this isn't true. By and large, people are smart and able. And believe it or not, under the right conditions, groups of people are quite intelligent. Take for example, the great Francis Galtan's observation from a fair he attended, The West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition. Sounds exciting. Believe it or not, about 800 people attended. In a competition, each person got to guess the weight of an ox. The ox weighed 1198 pounds. The closest guess, 1207 pounds. But average the 800 guesses and the collective guess or average was 1197 pounds. The group beat the best individual. How does this happen? Well, no one probably goes to this fair unless…

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