Mob Rule or the Wisdom of the Crowd?

by Lita Sorensen (Editor)

Overview

One of the tenets of democracy is that everyone has a voice in decision making and that the decisions made are what the majority wants. Many argue that wisdom of the crowd prevails in democracies, but are political decisions actually reached by a clear consensus, or does angry factionalism prevent this? Does irrational mob rule cause people to gang together and lash out against the opposition? Are the majority of citizens satisfied with the political situation? This volume explores whether political organization is possible without the force of mob rule, as well as how contemporary political events fit into this debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534506381
Publisher:	Greenhaven Publishing LLC
Publication date:	12/30/2019
Series:	At Issue
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

1 An Overview of the Wisdom of Crowds Phenomenon Graham Kendall 11

2 Wisdom of Crowds Only Works When Diversity Is Present Will Hutton 15

3 A View of the Crowd from a Traditional Social Science Perspective Floyd Henry Allport 20

4 Democracy and the Crowd Talal Al-Khatib 28

5 Can the People Ever Be Trusted? Julie Simon 35

6 Stereotype Accuracy Helps with Efficient Decision-Making Lee Jussim 40

7 Wikipedia Taps into the Wisdom of the Crowd Jeffrey A. Tucker 52

8 Is Crowdsourcing Misguided Tech Utopianism as Applied to Government? Stefaan Verhulst 56

9 Human Swarming and Collective Intelligence Louis Rosenberg 62

10 Will Collective Intelligence Change the Way We Work?: MIT Sloan School of Management 71

11 Witness to an Information Cascade: The Dangers of Herd Mentality Claire Potter 78

12 10 Things You Ought to Know About Polls Bill Schneider 88

13 Introducing the Global Brain: How Ideas Will Spread in 2035 Michael Haupt 96

14 Better Wisdom from Crowds Peter Dizikes 100

15 When the Wisdom of Crowds Fails Nick Beim 105

16 Groupthink Can Lead to Bad Decisions and Hinder Innovation Phil McKinney 109

Organizations to Contact 114

Bibliography 119

Index 124