The Wisdom of Crowds

I have a book called “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” by Charles Mackay. The book talks about the follies that crowds seem to indulge in. He covers a wide range of historic events and activities such as The South Seas Bubble, Tulipmania, The Crusades, Witch Mania, Alchemy and Fortune Telling among other things.

The book was originally published in 1841 and was reprinted as recently as last year so it has some level of popularity. It is written in the language of 1841 which makes it a difficult read for a modern reader such as myself. If you are unfamiliar with any of the topics listed above I suggest you have a look at Wiki at the least as all of them are interesting topics.

The over arching theme is of course that crowds are dumb. The words delusion and madness in the title sort of give the game away as to what Charles thinks of crowd behaviour. My personal experience of crowds seems to mirror Charles view that groups of people acting mostly in dumb ways and in ways that they as individuals would probably not.

One kind of example springs to mind, when I was at university the lectures were timetabled to finish around lunch (I forget the exact time now) and hordes of hungry students would head to the cafeteria leading to a crowd shuffling forward to enter through the main doors. To the left of the main door by approx 5m was a single door leading to the same space as the main doors. No one ever used the single door despite myself and others repeatedly walking past the crowd and through the single door. For some reason the people in the crowd were unable to observe this behaviour and modify their own to take advantage of this fact. The pull of the crowd was greater than their hunger it seems.

This propensity for crowds to act in dumb ways has always bothered me because crowds vote and my worst fears are borne out every time they elect a left wing government or a single issue candidate.
However what is up with the crowds at the moment? The break out of popular uprisings in Egypt and now Libya are examples of crowds acting for the good. (assuming you agree the countries should not be run by dictators for their own benefit) Although I guess I could argue that they are still being a bit dumb, I mean a number of people have been and continue to be killed as part of these protests. Turning up to a protest rally where you may go home dead may not be the smartest thing you ever did but clearly an example of several crowds acting for the good.

But the current crowd action which is perhaps the most interesting is what is happening around Christchurch at the moment with so many stories of spontaneous actions by groups of individuals acting in a positive and unselfish way to help those around them who are worse off. And while the likes of the Student Volunteer Army grab the headlines the little stuff of neighbours forming up to hold group BBQs or the bloke that happens to have a spring in his yard and is supplying water and the thousands of other acts of kindness that I will never hear about.

With all this good stuff about let’s hope that we can maintain our focus on the positive members of the community, the clear majority, and the media can resist the temptation to highlight the complainers who will surface shortly. The “why isn’t the government doing more brigade” who are out there waiting for their moment in the spotlight.

I also wonder why it takes a crisis to bring out the best in people?, or does it? is it just that I get to hear about it in a crisis?

So despite ample evidence that crowds are dumb, sometimes they produce fantastic results and probably this mostly speaks to us being social beings at heart. I am still a bit worried about crowds voting but clearly I should retain my faith in the human condition which in the majority is a force for good.