Friday, November 23, 2007

Does the crowd always know?

I don't know. But there is a good chance all of you do.

I have been messing around on Facebook lately. One of their diversions is the 'never-ending movie quiz'. There are hundreds, if not thousands of questions, and you just keep answering them. I've answered 201 (hey, it's Thanksgiving weekend), and I've noticed something interesting. After you answer the question, it shows you the correct answer, and the percentages of where people voted. Every time, without fail, the crowd picks the right answer. The lowest I've ever seen are in the 60s, with the other 40 percent spreading across the other three answers.

In others words, the wisdom of the many seems to be higher than the wisdom of the one (or few).

So, ignore what your mom said. If everybody else is doing it, join right in!

1 comment:

shelleylyn said...

someone should tell this to Dr. Merrill. It would settle an argument he has with David.