Speaker: Wendelin Schnedler, Paderborn University

Title: Curse of Crowds

Abstract: Many decisions are entrusted to groups of people rather than individuals because 'the many know more than the few.' This paper points out that under reasonable conditions, optimally employing this knowledge requires a lot of common understanding between individuals. This understanding is harder to obtain the larger the group. Crowds do not only seem blessed by more knowledge but also cursed in the sense that they cannot make optimal use of this knowledge. Building on existing models, we illustrate the curse and present experimental evidence.
(Joint with Darius Schlangenotto and Radovan Vadovic)

Organizer: Emma von Essen