Led by the followers:
It seems to me we have talked a fair amount about the herd mentality. I suppose you could call it the Gadarene swine effect. “And He cast the demons into a herd of swine, which ran down the hill to drown themselves in the Sea of Galilee, and on the way one pig said, “Don’t you think we ought to consider just what we are doing?” And another pig said, “Just keep your head down and keep running.”
Anyway there continue to be articles about the coordinated behavior of groups. (Follow My Leader ECONOMIST vol. 398 no. 8722 February 26, 2011 page 87 and Larissa Conradt When It Pays to Share Decisions NATURE vol. 471 no. 7336 March 3, 2011 page 40 ) These recent articles, seems to side with such behavior. A group can make a better decision than an individual even though most of the members of the group know nothing about what is going on.
Well I suppose that can be shown to work for fish. I should think humans would be very reluctant to give up their own analysis and simply follow the crowd, but that does not appear to be the general phenomenon. Once again I am obliged to say, “I know the lot of you are in mutual agreement and don’t agree with me, but you will simply have to change that.”
There have been 13,578 visitors so far.