Overview & Description:

The wisdom of crowds refers to the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than that of a single expert. A large group’s aggregated answers to questions involving quantity estimation, general world knowledge, and spatial reasoning have been found, under certain conditions, to be as good as, and often better than, the answer given by any of the individuals within the group.

Example:

Estimations of the number of candies in a jar tend to become more accurate when averaging multiple guesses, compared to individual estimates.

Implications:

• Decision Making: Leveraging collective intelligence in making decisions and predictions.
• Market Predictions: Utilizing crowd wisdom in predicting stock market trends or product success.

References:

• Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. Anchor Books.