The voice of the mass may not be right....

The voice of the mass may not be right, according to this book "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets".

Main Arguments of the book:

• People consider themselves to be rational and logical beings.
• Nothing could be further from the truth: Human behavior is driven not by cold facts
but by squishy emotions.
• The need to reproduce guides human decisions. When you buy a Hummer or build
a McMansion, you’re advertising your desirability as a mate.
• Human illogic becomes apparent in the leaders people select. From Alexander the
Great to George W. Bush, leaders generally want to change the world.
• This world-improver impulse always fails.
• The human brain isn’t sophisticated enough to analyze all the information it needs,
so people simplify and generalize.
• Crowd behavior inflates financial bubbles; people believe what others believe.
• In a bubble, humans don’t study the facts.
• Instead, people cram the facts into whatever theory is fashionable.
• Wars are the ultimate proof of human folly. Rarely necessary, wars are fought
unquestioningly by those with the most to lose.

Summary of the book:
http://www.economist.com/media/globalexecutive/mobs-messiahs-markets-bonner-e.pdf

MetaFilter - Mass Intelligence

These guys are having basically the same discussion.

I like this response:

"The other examples in the article are good, but the Millionaire Ask the Audience one is flawed, because contestants usually ask the Audience general knowledge questions (i.e. the Easy ones).
posted by Stan Chin at 3:02 PM on May 25, 2004 "

There's also a link to the Surowiecki book that was mentioned in class.