034 Crowd Intelligence

An emergent intelligence arising from the unwitting collaboration of many people.

• Crowd intelligence means that the average responses of a group to a certain class of problems are better than any individual response from that group. A crowd is any group of people whose members contribute independently to solving a problem.

• Crowd intelligence works best on problems that have definitive answers. For example, crowd intelligence is effective at solving math problems, but less effective at solving design problems.

• The highest crowd intelligence emerges from groups made up of diverse opinions and beliefs. Strong authoritative or social influences within a group undermines its crowd intelligence.

• Consider crowd intelligence as an alternative means of solving problems. Limit its use to problems that can be simply expressed and with definitive answers.

See Also 80/20 Rule • Normal Distribution • Selection Bias

Almost 800 people guessed the weight of an ox butchered and dressed. Statistician Francis Galton found that the average of these guesses missed the weight by only one pound, which was closer than any individual guess.