Why people get more stupid in a crowd
The �wisdom of crowds� doesn�t always apply � sometimes group-think nudges people to make wrong-headed decisions
Michael Bond
The downstairs room of a central London pub is not where most psychologists would choose to stage an experiment in decision-making, but for Daniel Richardson it is ideal. A researcher at University College London, he is interested in how peoples thinking is influenced by those around them for example, whether seeing other peoples choices affects our own. For this he requires real-world settings where people mingle and socialise, rather than a psychology lab where they are typically quarantined.
Tonight around 50 of us are gathered in the Phoenix Arts Club in Soho to take part in one of Richardsons mass participation studies. There is a jovial air, and he stands before us with his sleeves rolled up like a compere at a variety show. Yet this is serious science. We are each logged onto a specially configured website that enables us to move a dot around on our touchscreens, which moves a corresponding dot on a large screen at the front of the room. Our collective thoughts are up there for all to see (and for Richardson to measure). When everyone moves their dot, the screen resembles a swarm of agitated bees.
Unfortunately, the final results are not delivered on the night (theyll form part of a PhD thesis). But Richardson thinks they will end up demonstrating the pernicious effects of conformity. The decisions people make as a group tend to be more prejudiced and less intelligent than the ones they make individually. When people interact, they end up agreeing, and they make worse decisions, he says. They dont share information, they share biases. Were trying to figure out why that is, and how we can make collective decisions better. when Richardson presents us with a picture of a killer whale and asks us how much the creature weighs, hell be better off taking the average of the answers we give independently, rather than following the scramble of dots on the screen. Thats the theory. The data from tonight will help Richardson and his students test it, and explore the deeper issue of exactly how the presence of others alters our cognition and perception. He leaves us with a thought about social media:
We think of the internet as an information superhighway. Its not, its a bias superhighway. Twitter and Facebook are wonderful ways of sharing information, but it may be that because were sharing our prejudices, theyre making us dumber. BBC
