Social K: The Game
What do YOU know about people? Do you think that you know the human psyche? And, do you know the human psyche better than your friends? Here's the app that will put your mind to the test. Social K assesses your knowledge about human behavior and teaches you facts that you may have never known!
InMind Newsletter
Uninformed individuals important for a democracy
Democratic consensus can be reached with the help of uninformed individuals.
Stephanie Blom attended Utrecht University, where she completed her Bachelors (Psychology) and research Masters (Social and Health Psychology). Currently, she works as a PhD student at Utrecht University under the supervision of G. Semin. Her research is focused on specifying the parameters of simulation processes involved in the facial expression of emotions.You may think that for a democracy to function, voters ideally are interested and informed about the matter. Uninformed individuals may be less ideal, because they are considered most vulnerable to manipulation by a strongly opinionated minority. A recent study by researchers of Princeton University studied the dynamics and influence of the presence of minority, majority, and uninformed groups on consensus within a group.
In line with present thinking, a strongly opinionated minority can indeed dictate decision processes. However, when uninformed individuals are present, these individuals will follow the majority and let majority rule instead of the strongly opinionated minority. Numbers thus seem to count more in the choice of an uninformed individual than strength of opinion.
Picture by Dominic's pics, on Flickr
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Couzin, I.D., Ioannou, C.C., Demirel, G., Gross, T., Torney, C.J., Hartnett, A., Conradt, L., Levin, S.A., & Leonard, N.E. (2011). Uninformed individuals promote democratic consensus in animal groups. Science, 334, 1578-1580.