Lorenz, J., Rauhut, H., Schweitzer, F., &amp; Helbing, D. (2011). How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(22), 9020–9025. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1008636108  

Syracuse University

Social influence reduces diversity in crowd responses which diminishes the accuracy of the group median estimate.

The Social Influence Effect in Relation to Crowd Estimates


How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect

The wisdom of crowd effect suggests that the median estimate of a group is more likely to have  closer accuracy to an answer than the estimate of an individual.

Wisdom of Crowd Effect

- Suspect that others have better information
- Peer pressure to conform
- Group deliberation of facts


Social Influence Factors that Lead Individual to Revise Their Answers

The confidence effect refers to boosts in confidence of individuals after the convergence of estimates within the group, despite there being no actual improvement in response accuracy. 

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