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The impact of incorrect social information on collective wisdom in human groups

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand Jayles
  • Ramon Escobedo
  • Stéphane Cezera

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Adrien Blanchet

    (IAST - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse)

  • Tatsuya Kameda
  • Clément Sire
  • Guy Théraulaz

    (IAST - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse)

Abstract

A major problem resulting from the massive use of social media is the potential spread of incorrect information. Yet, very few studies have investigated the impact of incorrect information on individual and collective decisions. We performed experiments in which participants had to estimate a series of quantities, before and after receiving social information. Unbeknownst to them, we controlled the degree of inaccuracy of the social information through ‘virtual influencers', who provided some incorrect information. We find that a large proportion of individuals only partially follow the social information, thus resisting incorrect information. Moreover, incorrect information can help improve group performance more than correct information, when going against a human underestimation bias. We then design a computational model whose predictions are in good agreement with the empirical data, and sheds light on the mechanisms underlying our results. Besides these main findings, we demonstrate that the dispersion of estimates varies a lot between quantities, and must thus be considered when normalizing and aggregating estimates of quantities that are very different in nature. Overall, our results suggest that incorrect information does not necessarily impair the collective wisdom of groups, and can even be used to dampen the negative effects of known cognitive biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand Jayles & Ramon Escobedo & Stéphane Cezera & Adrien Blanchet & Tatsuya Kameda & Clément Sire & Guy Théraulaz, 2020. "The impact of incorrect social information on collective wisdom in human groups," Post-Print hal-03019820, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03019820
    DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/bufjk
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03019820
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bertrand Jayles & Clément Sire & Ralf H J M Kurvers, 2021. "Crowd control: Reducing individual estimation bias by sharing biased social information," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(11), pages 1-28, November.

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    Keywords

    Wisdom of crowds; Computational modelling; Social influence; Incorrect information; Human collective behaviour;
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