Stephen Downes’ new column on e-Learn does a great job of showing that solving the informational cascade problem is more challenging than I had presented it to be in my own article on the topic. In fact, his own analysis reveals that the problem may be harder to solve than even he himself suggests. The […]
informational-cascades
Jeremy Wagstaff's LOOSE wire: Blogs And The Suppression Of Dissent
Jeremy Wagstaff, after giving a fairly in-depth summary of my informational cascades article, responds with the following counterpoint: On the other hand, there’s also plenty of evidence to suggest blogs foster a healthy discussion and if someone says something controversial, it’s likely to be challenged. It’s not always easy to see your words criticised on […]
Correction on the Origins of Informational Cascade Research
I was mistaken in an earlier post when I claimed that informational cascades research comes from the “heuristics and biases approach” in psychology. It definitely comes from behavioral economics. Both behavioral economics and the heuristics and biases approach share common ancestry from the work of Herbert Simon. A genuine polymath, Simon won a Nobel Prize […]
Informational Cascades, Network Theory, and Behavioral Economics
Stephen Downes’ mention of my article on informational cascades (thanks for the plug, Stephen) led me to his post in the trdev discussion group. He writes: In network theory, ‘groupthink’ is an instance of what is known as a cascade phenomenon. A cascade occurs (all other things being equal) when the propogation of a property […]
Book Recommendation: Why Societies Need Dissent
If you liked my article on informational cascades then you will probably want to read Cass Sunstein’s Why Societies Need Dissent. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, writes in detail about the impact of informational cascades on democratic dialogue, the rulings of panels of judges, and other critical areas related to civil […]
New Article on Informational Cascades
My new article just came out in eLearn. It started out wanting to be about “emergent learning” but, once I realized that I still have no idea what emergent learning actually is, I removed all references to it in the article. At any rate, I feel pretty good about the piece. The question will arise […]
Idea Viruses as Informational Cascades
In a previous post, I suggested that so-called “idea viruses” might be thought of as either causes of or manifestations of informational cascades. I now think manifestation is the right characterization rather than cause. I am persuaded by this fascinating and frightening piece of research [PDF] showing that legislators tend to try to garner support […]