In this post, we’ll unpack all you need to know about the concept Wisdom Of Crowds, defining exactly what it is, its characteristics, how to leverage it and more.
What Is Wisdom Of Crowds?
Wisdom Of Crowds (WOC) is the idea that groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts. This specifically applies to problem-solving, decision-making, innovating and predicting.
For example, by averaging together the individual guesses of a group about the weight of an object, the answer is likely to be more accurate than the guesses of experts most familiar with that object.
A Deeper Dive
The term was first popularised by American journalist James Michael Surowiecki in his aptly titled book The Wisdom Of Crowds.
The idea is that the viewpoint of an individual can inherently be biased. However, taking the average knowledge of a crowd can eliminate human bias to produce a clearer and more coherent result.
Characteristics Of A Wise Crowd
According to Surowiecki, 3 factors influence the accuracy of a crowd: diversity, independence and decentralisation.
Additionally, the larger the group, the more reliable its judgement will be and the quality of the crowd also matters. An ill-informed crowd or one with little knowledge can lead to adverse outcomes.
Summary (TL;DR)
Wisdom Of Crowds is the idea that large groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts.
For a crowd to be considered wise, it must have a diversity of opinions and each individuals opinion must be independent from the influence of others.
