October 17, 2007
The Wisdom (?) Of Crowds
Sandra sent me this message last week:
We just met recently in Wilmington, Delaware at the DMGMA Gala. I wanted to call your attention to an article in the NY Times yesterday. Called "Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus," it discusses how we are easily persuaded by the force of other personalities and the feeling that others may know more than we do…a dangerous assumption. This is a classic case where the media can take up a point of view that is just one aspect of an issue and entire national medical treatment regimens and recommendations as well as government policies are the result. You can find this article in the listing of most emailed articles from October 9th. See what you think.
[Note from Steve, here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html]
I enjoyed your presentation very much. It would be interesting if you could put together some kind of exercise to appear in your online messages and/or for your presentations that test assumptions people hold. Just a thought.
Sandra
Comments on The Wisdom (?) Of Crowds »
Dr. Steve Bedwell @ 9:56 am
Thanks Sandra, The New York Times article was fascinating. As a fan of the "If everyone believes it, it’s probably wrong!" school of thought, I was especially intrigued! It gave me particular pause because I’ve also published scientific papers examining the role of lipid metabolism in heart disease. And, as such, have invested considerable time and effort studying this area.
Here’s an interesting book arguing in favor of the "The Wisdom of Crowds" After all, there’s always more than one way of looking at a situation!
Thanks for your message,
Steve