The potential for effective reasoning guides children's preference for small group discussion over crowdsourcing.

ABSTRACT: Communication between social learners can make a group collectively "wiser" than any individual, but conformist tendencies can also distort collective judgment. We asked whether intuitions about when communication is likely to improve or distort collective judgment could allow social learners to take advantage of the benefits of communication while minimizing the risks. In three experiments (n = 360), 7- to 10-year old children and adults decided whether to refer a question to a small group for discussion or "crowdsource" independent judgments from individual advisors. For problems affording the kind of 'demonstrative' reasoning that allows a group member to reliably correct errors made by even a majority, all ages preferred to consult the discussion group, even compared to a crowd ten tim

SUBMITTER: Richardson E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8786842 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature