UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Network dynamics of social influence in the wisdom of crowds

Becker, J; Brackbill, D; Centola, D; (2017) Network dynamics of social influence in the wisdom of crowds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA , 114 (26) E5070-E5076. 10.1073/pnas.1615978114. Green open access

[thumbnail of Becker Brackbill Centola - Manuscript.pdf]
Preview
Text
Becker Brackbill Centola - Manuscript.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (640kB) | Preview

Abstract

A longstanding problem in the social, biological, and computational sciences is to determine how groups of distributed individuals can form intelligent collective judgments. Since Galton’s discovery of the “wisdom of crowds” [Galton F (1907) Nature 75:450–451], theories of collective intelligence have suggested that the accuracy of group judgments requires individuals to be either independent, with uncorrelated beliefs, or diverse, with negatively correlated beliefs [Page S (2008) The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies]. Previous experimental studies have supported this view by arguing that social influence undermines the wisdom of crowds. These results showed that individuals’ estimates became more similar when subjects observed each other’s beliefs, thereby reducing diversity without a corresponding increase in group accuracy [Lorenz J, Rauhut H, Schweitzer F, Helbing D (2011) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:9020–9025]. By contrast, we show general network conditions under which social influence improves the accuracy of group estimates, even as individual beliefs become more similar. We present theoretical predictions and experimental results showing that, in decentralized communication networks, group estimates become reliably more accurate as a result of information exchange. We further show that the dynamics of group accuracy change with network structure. In centralized networks, where the influence of central individuals dominates the collective estimation process, group estimates become more likely to increase in error.

Type: Article
Title: Network dynamics of social influence in the wisdom of crowds
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1615978114
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1615978114
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: social networks, collective intelligence, social learning, wisdom of crowds, experimental social science
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > UCL School of Management
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10107802
Downloads since deposit
53Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item