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Why people get more stupid in a crowd
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Biased Group Decisions
One of the strange effects of conformity is that the decisions made as a group are prejudiced, biased and less intelligent than those made by an individual.
When people interact, they do not normally want to learn something new but are much happier conforming to their already existing beliefs. They agree with the other group members and make typically worse decisions.
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Majority Wins
Even when the majority is absolutely wrong, it wins. This makes individuals fear to have the wrong opinion, as it might sideline or isolate them from their peers. Some might even deny their own common sense in the process. This ‘Wisdom of the Crowds’ effect makes any large group of people gravitate towards their original biases.
The information superhighway, having groups of millions of people, becomes a bias superhighway, due to the same effect amplified many times.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
Social learning
We humans are so social, that we can hardly be independent of others because of social learning - our disposition for imitating behavior and communication.
In relation to decision...
Social learning lead to technological success
Advances in modern science and technology have been made possible not only by genius innovation, but by our capacity to learn from others.
So social learning is seen as a source of collective intelligence.
Collective intelligence
Collective intelligence means smart decision making among groups of individuals that improves on the ability of one single person.
It can be useful in areas such as management, product development and predicting elections.
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The bandwagon effect
It's a cognitive bias that causes people to think or act in a certain manner because they believe that other people are doing the same.
For example, the bandwagon effect might cause...
Examples of the bandwagon effect
- The bandwagon effect can influence people’s political choices.
- It can influence consumers’ decisions regarding which products to buy.
- It can influence users’ decisions regarding how to rate stories or comments.
- It can influence investors’ financial choices.
- It can influence doctors’ medical decisions.
- It can influence organizations’ implementation of new technologies.
Why the bandwagon effect happens
It serves as a mental shortcut that people instinctively use in order to make a decision quickly.
Specifically, bandwagon cues, which are signs that other people believe something or are doing something, can trigger the thought that “if other people like this, then I should too”.
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The Real Career Landscape
The career pitfall
Today’s career landscape isn’t a lineup of tunnels, it’s a massive, impossibly complex, rapidly changing science laboratory.
Why Career-path-carving is important.
Time. A typical career will take up somewhere between 20% and 60% of your meaningful adult time.
Quality of Life. Your career has a major effect on all your non-career hours.
Impact. Whatever shape your career path ends up taking, the world will be altered by it.
Identity. We tell people about our careers by telling them what we are.