Статья

Uninformed Individuals Promote Democratic Consensus in Animal Groups

Iain D. CouzinDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USAChristos C. IoannouDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USAGüven DemirelMax Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse, 01187 Dresden, GermanyThilo GroßMax Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse, 01187 Dresden, GermanyColin J. TorneyDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USAAndrew T. HartnettDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USALarissa ConradtSchool of Life Sciences, John Maynard Smith Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UKSimon A. LevinDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USANaomi Ehrich LeonardDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

2011en

ABI

Аннотация

Conflicting interests among group members are common when making collective decisions, yet failure to achieve consensus can be costly. Under these circumstances individuals may be susceptible to manipulation by a strongly opinionated, or extremist, minority. It has previously been argued, for humans and animals, that social groups containing individuals who are uninformed, or exhibit weak preferences, are particularly vulnerable to such manipulative agents. Here, we use theory and experiment to demonstrate that, for a wide range of conditions, a strongly opinionated minority can dictate group choice, but the presence of uninformed individuals spontaneously inhibits this process, returning control to the numerical majority. Our results emphasize the role of uninformed individuals in achieving democratic consensus amid internal group conflict and informational constraints.

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Идентификаторы

DOI: 10.1126/science.1210280

Цитирования и источники

Цитирований: 2Использованных источников: 0

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