Category: Science

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What Is Social Contagion? How the Spread of Obesity Is an Example of Social Contagion

What Is Social Contagion?

What Is Social Contagion?

Social contagion is the spread of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors from person to person and among larger groups as affected by shared information and mimicry.

Paul M. Kirsch, “The Influence of Social Contagion and Technology on Epidemic Non-Suicidal Self-Injury,” 2012.

 

The Spread of Obesity: An Example of Social Contagion

Social contagion actually may account for as much, or perhaps, even more of a person’s risk of obesity than genetic and other factors that have been previously studied.

Academic research shows that, at least in the American population, and maybe in the international population as well, that we are all connected to one another by six degrees of separation. Your friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’ friend, for example, is going to include just about everybody in the population. And what we find, remarkably in the study, is that although the average degree of separation between individuals is six, here your influence extends up to three degrees of separation. And so, halfway, pretty much half the distance into the social network, your health behavior is having an impact on other people.

–Dr. James Fowler in “Obesity and Social Networks – CBS.”

 

Mindless Eating – Explaining Obesity in Terms of Social Contagion

 

Image: "TransparencyCamp 2012 - #tcamp12 social network graph [1/2]" by justgrimes.
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How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

Cooperation—not competition—underpins innovation. To spur creativity, and to encourage people to come up with original ideas, you need to use the lure of the carrot, not fear of the stick. Cooperation is the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities. Without cooperation there can be neither construction nor complexity in evolution.

–Martin Nowak with Roger Highfield, SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed.

In recent papers, Dr. Martin Nowak has argued that cooperation is one of the three basic principles of evolution. The other two are mutation and selection. On their own, mutation and selection can transform a species, giving rise to new traits like limbs and eyes. But cooperation is essential for life to evolve to a new level of organization. Single-celled protozoa had to cooperate to give rise to the first multicellular animals. Humans had to cooperate for complex societies to emerge.

“We see this principle everywhere in evolution where interesting things are happening,” Dr. Nowak said.

While cooperation may be central to evolution, however, it poses questions that are not easy to answer. How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good? And how do they continue to cooperate in the face of exploitation? To answer these questions, Dr. Nowak plays games.

 

The B/C>K Equation = When the Benefit-to-Cost (B/C) Ratio of Cooperation Is Greater than the Average Number of People in the Network (K), then Cooperation Emerges

As Dr. Nowak developed his neighborhood game model, he realized it would help him study human cooperation. “The reality is that I’m much more likely to interact with my friends, and they’re much more likely to interact with their friends,” Dr. Nowak said. “So it’s more like a network.”

Dr. Nowak and his colleagues found that when they put players into a network, tight clusters of cooperators emerge, and defectors elsewhere in the network are not able to undermine their altruism. “Even if outside our network there are cheaters, we still help each other a lot,” Dr. Nowak said. That is not to say that cooperation always emerges. Dr. Nowak identified the conditions when it can arise with a simple equation: B/C>K. That is, cooperation will emerge if the benefit-to-cost (B/C) ratio of cooperation is greater than the average number of neighbors (K).

“It’s the simplest possible thing you could have expected, and it’s completely amazing,” he said.

 

Boost Cooperation by Boosting Reputation: Rewarding Cooperators and Shunning Non-Cooperators

Another boost for cooperation comes from reputations. When we decide whether to cooperate, we don’t just rely on our past experiences with that particular person. People can gain reputations that precede them. Dr. Nowak and his colleagues pioneered a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma in which players acquire reputations. They found that if reputations spread quickly enough, they could increase the chances of cooperation taking hold. Players were less likely to be fooled by defectors and more likely to benefit from cooperation.

In experiments conducted by other scientists with people and animals, Dr. Nowak’s mathematical models seem to fit. Reputation has a powerful effect on how people play games. People who gain a reputation for not cooperating tend to be shunned or punished by other players. Cooperative players get rewarded.

“You help because you know it gives you a reputation of a helpful person, who will be helped,” Dr. Nowak said. “You also look at others and help them according to whether they have helped.”

The above text is excerpted from the article: Carl Zimmer, “In Games, an Insight Into the Rules of Evolution,” The New York Times, July 31, 2007.

 

What Do You Think?

How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good?

How do competing individuals continue to cooperate in the face of exploitation?

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What Is Flow Experience? Can We Help Each Other Experience Flow More Often Than What Is Described Here?

What Is a Flow Experience? How Can We Help Each Other Achieve a Flow Experience More Often?

What Is a Flow Experience? How Can We Help Each Other Achieve a Flow Experience More Often?

When you are really involved in this completely engaging process of creating something new, you do not have enough attention left over to monitor how your body feels, or your problems at home.

You cannot feel even that you’re hungry or tired.

Your body disappears, your identity disappears from your consciousness, because you don’t have enough attention, like none of us do, to really do well something that requires a lot of concentration, and at the same time to feel that you exist.

So existence is temporarily suspended.

This automatic, spontaneous process that is being described can only happen to someone who is very well trained and who has developed technique. And it has become a kind of a truism in the study of creativity that you cannot be creating anything with less than 10 years of technical-knowledge immersion in a particular field.

Whether it is mathematics or music, it takes that long to be able to begin to change something in a way that it is better than what was there before. Now, when that happens, he says the music just flows out.

This is the flow experience, and it happens in different realms.

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the TED Talk “Flow, The Secret to Happiness.” All quotes in this post are from this TED talk, which can be viewed also at the bottom of this post.

 

Flow Experience for a Poet

For instance, a poet describes it in this form. This is by a student of mine who interviewed some of the leading writers and poets in the United States. And it describes the same effortless, spontaneous feeling that you get when you enter into this ecstatic state. This poet describes it as opening a door that floats in the sky — a very similar description to what Albert Einstein gave as to how he imagined the forces of relativity, when he was struggling with trying to understand how it worked.

 

Flow Experience for an Athlete

But it happens in other activities. For instance, this is another student of mine, Susan Jackson from Australia, who did work with some of the leading athletes in the world. And you see here in this description of an Olympic skater, the same essential description of the phenomenology of the inner state of the person. You don’t think; it goes automatically, if you merge yourself with the music, and so forth.

 

Flow Experience for CEOs

It happens also, actually, in the most recent book I wrote, called “Good Business,” where I interviewed some of the CEOs who had been nominated by their peers as being both very successful and very ethical, very socially responsible. You see that these people define success as something that helps others and at the same time makes you feel happy as you are working at it. And like all of these successful and responsible CEOs say, you can’t have just one of these things be successful if you want a meaningful and successful job. Anita Roddick is another one of these CEOs we interviewed. She is the founder of Body Shop, the natural cosmetics king. It’s kind of a passion that comes from doing the best and having flow while you’re working.

This is an interesting little quote from Masaru Ibuka, who was at that time starting out Sony without any money, without a product — they didn’t have a product, they didn’t have anything, but they had an idea. And the idea he had was to establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society and work to their heart’s content. I couldn’t improve on this as a good example of how flow enters the workplace.

 

Flow Experience during Work

Now, when we do studies — we have, with other colleagues around the world, done over 8,000 interviews of people — from Dominican monks, to blind nuns, to Himalayan climbers, to Navajo shepherds — who enjoy their work. And regardless of the culture, regardless of education or whatever, there are these seven conditions that seem to be there when a person is in flow. There’s this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity: you know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other; you get immediate feedback. You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears, you forget yourself, you feel part of something larger. And once the conditions are present, what you are doing becomes worth doing for its own sake.

 

7 Conditions of Flow Experience

1. Completely involved in what you are doing – focused, concentrated.

2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.

3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well you are doing.

4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are adequate to the task.

5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.

6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.

7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes it own reward.

 

What Do You Think?

What could help people have a flow experience regardless of their profession or skill?

Is there a common flow experience we could all help each other achieve, and thus experience this exalted state much more often, and not in connection to our profession or skills? If there is, how could we achieve that?

Please write your answers in the comments below!

 

Watch Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow, The Secret to Happiness [TED Talk] »

Image: "The Flow of Water" by "John T. Howard."
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15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

—The World Health Organization’s Definition of Health

 

1) The Problem of Overseeing the Importance of Social Connection

We often do not recognize the importance of social connection. Our culture values hard work, success, and wealth, so it’s no surprise some of us do not set aside enough time for social ties when we think security lies in material things rather than other people.¹

 

2) The Problem of Loneliness

Olds and Schwartz (Associate Clinical Professors of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School) argue in The Lonely American that loneliness is often mistaken for depression. Instead of connecting with others, we consume a pill. Being lonely is outside of our individualistic world view so we don’t even see it as a problem. ¹

 

3) More Social Connection = More Active Democracy

Harvard’s Robert Putnam writes about social capital in his book, Bowling Alone, and shows how social ties are not only important for personal well-being, but also for our democracy. To paraphrase Putnam, “the culture in which people talk to each other over the back fence is the culture in which people vote.” Apparently, when you feel part of a group, you’re more likely to contribute to it — such as by voting. ¹

 

4) Social Connection Is Central to Progressive Social Change

UC Berkeley’s George Lakoff has said that we can only bring about progressive social change by evoking empathy. You can’t get people to change by loading them up with facts or shaking your finger at them. You must talk to others with respect and caring — and then you connect. Social capital is thus central to progressive social change. ¹

 

5) More Social Connection = Better for the Environment

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben says that we won’t have sustainability without community. Until we see other people as our main source of security, we’ll keep turning to things, using up oil and other resources and heating and polluting the planet. Until we have community in our neighborhoods, we’ll keep going to the mall for our evening’s entertainment. ¹

 

6) More Social Connection = More Happiness

In the book The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, by Robert E. Lane, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale, he brings together much of the research done on social capital over the last several years and shows how social ties not only affect our personal health, but also our societal health. He observes that as prosperity in a society increases, social solidarity decreases. Happiness not only declines, people become more distrustful of each other as well as their political institutions. Lane argues that we must alter our priorities; we must increase our levels of companionship even at the risk of reducing our income. ¹

 

7) Social Integration = Reduced Mortality Risks and Better Mental Health

A search of the literature published since the mid-1970s (under the MEDLINE key words, “social ties,” “social network,” “social isolation,” “social environment”) presented strong evidence that social integration leads to reduced mortality risks, and to a better state of mental health. … Available data suggest that, although social integration is generally associated with better health outcomes, the quality of existing ties also appears to influence the extent of such health benefits. Clearly, individuals’ networks of social relationships represent dynamic and complex social systems that affect health outcomes.²

 

8) Social Isolation and Nonsupportive Social Interactions = Lower Immune Function and Higher Heart Rate

Social isolation and nonsupportive social interactions can result in lower immune function and higher neuroendocrine and cardiovascular activity while socially supportive interactions have the opposite effects. ²

 

9) Strong Social Relationships = A Longer Life

Researchers analyzed 148 studies that examined the effect of social relationships and death risk. Together, these studies included 308,849 people who were followed for about 7.5 years on average. People were 50% more likely to be alive if they had strong social relationships. This finding held regardless of age, gender, or health status and for all causes of death.³

 

10) Seniors Living in Better Social Conditions are Also Physically More Mobile

In a study of 14,000 adults in Southeastern Pennsylvania, after measuring the levels of mobility among the seniors living in those neighborhoods, it was found that those living in areas with greater social capital had significantly higher physical mobility scores than those living in lower social capital neighborhoods.4

 

11) More Social Connection in Your Neighborhood = More Likely to Treat Diseases Earlier

In a study looking at how social capital related to positive health-seeking behavior – specifically getting recommended cancer screenings – although this study was not focused only on the elderly, it was found that in neighborhoods with higher levels of social capital, adults were 10-22 percent more likely to get screened at the recommended ages, suggesting earlier diagnoses and treatment for serious diseases.4

 

12) More Social Connection = Better Cognitive Functioning

In a study that looked at how social activity affected cognitive decline, over 1,100 seniors without dementia at baseline were measured on their social activity levels and then tested periodically on their cognitive functioning over a 12-year period. The rate of cognitive decline was 70 percent less in people with frequent social contact than those with low social activity.4

 

13) More Social Connection = Lower Levels of Disability

In a study that looked at a community-based cohort of older people free of dementia and measured social activity levels and their disability levels—in terms of their ability to care for themselves, findings showed that those with more frequent social activity maintained lower levels of disability in several areas, suggesting that they would be able to live independently longer than their less social counterparts.4

 

14) Social Isolation = Increased Mortality Risk

There is now a substantial body of evidence that indicates that the extent to which social relationships are strong and supportive is related to the health of individuals who live within such social contexts. A review of population-based research on mortality risk over the last 20 years indicates that people who are isolated are at increased mortality risk from a number of causes.

–Source: Lisa F. Berkman, “The Role of Social Relations in Health Promotion.” Psychosomatic Medicine.

 

15) 12 Ways Loneliness Is Bad for Your Health

According to the research of Dr. John Cacioppo, loneliness has a major impact on your overall health – both mental and physical.

In his research, Dr. Cacioppo employed brain scans, monitoring of autonomic and neuroendocrine processes, and assays of immune function to test the influence that social connection has upon our health. His research showed how our perceptions, behavior and physiology are strongly affected by a loss of that connection.

Dr. Cacoppo’s research has shown that loneliness can cause:

  • an increase in your blood pressure
  • an increase in your level of stress and cortisol production
  • a negative impact on your immune system
  • an inability to get a good night’s sleep
  • an increased level of depression and anxiety
  • an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease
  • a reduction in your will to exercise
  • an increase in your cravings for comforting foods high in processed carbohydrates
  • an increase in caloric consumption
  • an increase in alcohol consumption
  • an increase in the consumption of a variety of drugs…both legal and illegal, and…
  • a feeling of sadness that feeds upon itself, causing even more isolation and an even greater sense of loneliness.

Source: Douglas Robb, “Loneliness Worse for Your Health than Smoking and Obesity.” Health Habits.

 

Sources:

¹ Cecile Andrews, “Social Ties are Good for You.” Stanford University.

² Teresa E. Seeman, “Social Ties and Health: The Benefits of Social Integration.” Annals of Epidemiology: The Official Journal of the American College of Epidemiology.

³ Denise Mann, “Social Ties Can Add Years to Your Life.” WebMD.

4 Jill Suttie, “How Social Connections Keep Seniors Healthy.” Greater Good: The Science of a More Meaningful Life.

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Emerging Humanity

Emerging Humanity [Video]

Emerging Humanity [Video]

This video, METAPHORmosis, translates a message that was originally put forth by the author/public speaker/creative consultant, Norie Huddle, and further substantiated by the biologist and futurist, Elisabet Sahtouris. Using imagery, music and words it tells the story of a great shift in consciousness and reality that is occurring on planet earth. Following an example from the biological world, this video parallels the transformation that occurs in the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly with the socio-eco-spiritual transformation that is occurring all over the world as we speak.

 

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Plug Into Our Conversation With Elisabet Sahtouris on November 27, 2014

ES2004

Elisabet Sahtouris, M.S., Ph.D is an evolution biologist, futurist, professor, speaker, author and sustainability consultant to businesses, government agencies and other organizations. She is a US and Greek citizen living in Spain while lecturing, doing workshops and media appearances in Europe, North, Central and South America, the MidEast, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.

Dr. Sahtouris received a B.F.A. from Syracuse University, an M.S. from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in Canada. She held post-doctoral research grants at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and at Massachusetts General Hospital, taught at the Mass. Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Massachusetts and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute´s MBA program.

Dr. Sahtouris was a science writer for the NOVA-HORIZON TV series, (WGBH Boston/ BBC London), a UN Consultant on indigenous peoples, in China under the auspices of the Chinese National Science Organization, is a Fellow of the World Business Academy and holder of its Elisabet

Sahtouris Chair in Living Economies and is an advisor to Ethical Markets. She was a regular columnist for Mitsubishi ex-CEO’sTachi Kiuchi’s newsletter The Bridge, published in Tokyo for the Japanese Parliament and business leadership and co-convened two international symposia on the Foundations of Science in Hokkaido, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dr. Sahtouris participated in two invitational dialogues with HH the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India and in the Vatican, Rome, and is one of the people identified as Cultural Creatives in the book of that title by Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson. She is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders and of Rising Women; Rising World.

Speaking/Consulting Venues include:

  • United Nations, New York
  • Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
  • Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC
  • The World Bank, Washington, DC
  • The Santa Fe Institute
  • Siemens International Management Seminar, Stanford University
  • Boeing Management, St. Louis
  • State of the World Forums in San Francisco and New York.
  • Tokyo Dome Stadium
  • Sao Paulo’s Getulio Vargas Business University
  • UNIMED Foundation in Brasilia
  • National Tax Office of Australia, Canberra
  • New Zealand Gov’t Dept of Environment
  • Australian Public Relations Institute
  • TamChang University in Taiwan
  • World Futures Society and Foundation for the Future
  • Bahrain Banking Conference
  • World Parliament of Religions, S. Africa
  • First Rand Banks, S. Africa
  • Netherlands Government, all Depts
  • TEDx Hamburg, Germany
  • TEDx Marrakech, Morocco
  • Sri Lanka Ethical Clothing Design Conference
  • London Alternatives (and other venues in London)
  • Knight-Ridder Publications
  • Scientists & Sages Conference, San Diego
  • Science & NonDuality, San Francisco and Amsterdam
  • Voyage of Aloha Conference, Honolulu, by Wld. Bus. Acad & J. Campbell Fdn
  • Xynteo Foundation’s annual retreat for corporate execs and board members

Books:

— EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, iUniverse, 2000
— Biology Revisioned, co-authored with Willis Harman, North Atlantic & IONS, 1998
— A Walk Thru Time: From Stardust to Us, Wiley: New York 1998
— GAIA: the Human Journey from Chaos to Cosmos, Pocketbooks NY 1989, editions in English, Greek, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Danish.
Book Chapters in:
— A New Renaissance: Transforming Science, Spirit and Society, edit. D. Lorimer and O. Robinson, Floris Books, London, 2010
— Five Questions that Change Everything, Scherer, John, Imagine Books, 2009
— Mind Before Matter: Visions of a New Science of Consciousness, edit. T. Pfeiffer and J. Mack, O Books 2007
— Be the Change: Action and Reflection from People Changing Our World, Trenna Cormack, Love Books, Bristol, UK 2007
— Science and the Re-enchantment of the Cosmos, Laszlo, Ervin, Inner Traditions 2006
— When Worlds Converge, Matthews, C.N., Tucker, M.E., Hefner, P.E., Open Court, Chicago 2002
— Gaia in Action, edit. P.Bunyard (The Gaia Controversy: A Case for the Earth as an Evolving Organism) 1996.
— Roads to Ecology, Quest books, Wheaton Illinoi, 1994s
— Visions for the 21st Century, Ed. Moorcroft, Adamantine Press, London, 1992
— CHINA: Science Walks on Two Legs, Avon, NY 1975, co-authored
Articles & Interviews (too numerous to list , see www.sahtouris.com for a selection
Films:
—Dalai Lama Renaissance
—I AM the Documentary by Tom Shadyac
—The Money Fix
—Death by Medicine
—Thrive —Occupy Love
—Femme —Money & Life
—Love Thy Nature
________________________________________________________________

Contact:

Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D.
Cami es Verger 7-C
Deia, Mallorca 07179 Spain
tel: +34 971 636 234
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.sahtouris.com

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Our Upcoming Interview With Evolutionary Biologist and Futurist Elisabet Sahtouris November 27, 2014

Elisabet Sahtouris

Elisabet Sahtouris

We have created a perfect storm of crises and we have to grow up, it’s as simple as that. It is time for humans to reach the mature cooperative phase.

Mutual Responsibility’s panelists will be talking to Evolutionary Biologist and Futurist Elisabet Sahtouris on:

In this interview with Mutual Responsibility, Elisabet will be revealing the secrets to human co-existence.

Elisabet inspires us to understand the universe as a conscious, living system.  She draws on the world of living systems to give examples of how change is ever-occurring in nature, and how we are all interconnected in ways that we have only just begun to understand.

She has studied algae which has covered the Earth in its first 2 billion years, to find that there’s a maturation cycle of all life, and is trying to use this information as a blueprint for how humans should live.

Don’t miss out on this one!

Be there to connect with us!

We have only 100 seats available.

Go Here to Register »

 

What Is It?

This is a 60 minute live interview broadcast with Elisabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary Biologist and Futurist.

With Q&A, we’ll dive right into the secrets of human co-existence in a way that’s easy to understand.

If time allows, this event will also give you the opportunity to ask your own questions, share your thoughts,

Ideas and struggles in the chat and leave with even greater ideas and solutions.

Go Here to Register »

 

What Topics Will be Covered?

This broadcast is an example of a more dynamic interview with Elisabet. Elisabet inspires us to understand the universe as a conscious, living system.

She draws from the world of living systems to give examples of how change is ever-occurring in nature, and how we are all inter-connected in ways that we have only just begun to understand.

She has studied algae which has covered Earth in its first 2 billion years to find that there is a maturation cycle of all life, and is trying to use this information as a blueprint for how humans should live.

The schedule will be driven by Q&A from Mutual Responsibility’s panelists addressed to Elisabet.

Elisabet will be happy to answer your questions. You will have your chance to write down your question in the chat and our friendly moderator will select the questions and read them out should time allow.

Go Here to Register »

 

Who Is This For?

This interview brings together other like-minded people from all walks of life, members of the MR community.

We are all driven by the same desire to help build and facilitate global integral education, helping humanity to adapt to the integral natural system.

All panelists have interest in “Systemic thinking”, looking at our world as an interconnected, integral system.

This interest brought these people together to MR.

Go Here to Register »

 

Reserve Your Seat

There are only 100 seats.

You can reserve your seat starting today and join us as soon as we kick-off on Thursday, November 27 at 3:00 PM till 4:00 PM EST (NY Time) [Time Zone Converter].

Prepare. Find out more about Elisabet here:

Go Here to Register »

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One Big Reason To Place New Emphasis On Your Connection With Others: Happiness Is Contagious

what happiness looks like

… when a person becomes happy, next door neighbors have a 34% increased chance of becoming happy. A friend living within one mile? A 25% increased chance. Siblings? 14%. And a spouse? An 8% chance.”

– ABC, Good Morning America (citing research by Professor’s James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, which they write about in their book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives) 

We studied a full social network and found that happiness spreads through it like a contagion. And so we really do think that happiness is contagious.”

– James Fowler

Image: “what happiness looks like” by AJC1 on Flickr.

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The Wisdom Of The Crowd – How We Are Smarter & Stronger Together

Waiting in the sun for giants.

In an election year, people might disagree about who makes the best candidate. But you don’t hear much argument on the merits of democracy: that millions of average people can together make a wise decision.”

– Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist.

What Is The Wisdom Of The Crowd?

According to Wikipedia, [which is itself an excellent example of the wisdom of the crowd]:

The wisdom of the crowd is the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question. A large group’s aggregated answers to questions involving quantity estimation, general world knowledge, and spatial reasoning has generally been found to be as good as, and often better than, the answer given by any of the individuals within the group. An intuitive and often-cited explanation for this phenomenon is that there is idiosyncratic noise associated with each individual judgment, and taking the average over a large number of responses will go some way toward canceling the effect of this noise.”

The following video shows how the wisdom of the crowds has been implemented:

Can The Wisdom Of The Crowds Be Extended Past The Definition Provided Above?

I’ve been studying nature recently… starlings in the area around Edinburgh, in the moors of England… at night they come together and they create one of the most spectacular things in all of nature, and it’s called a murmuration… this thing has a function; it protects the birds. You can see on the right here, there is a predator being chased away by the collective power of the birds. Apparently this is a frightening thing if you are a predator of starlings. And, there’s leadership, but there’s no one leader.

Now is this some kind of fanciful analogy, or can we actually learn something from this?

.. this is a huge collaboration, it’s an openness, it’s a sharing of all kinds of information, not just about location and trajectory and danger and so on, but about food sources. And, there’s a real sense of interdependence, [that] the individual birds somehow understand that their interests are in the interest of the collective. Perhaps like we should understand that business can’t succeed in a world that’s failing.

Well, I look at this thing and I get a lot of hope. I think about the kids today in the Arab Spring and you see something like this that’s underway. And imagine, just consider this idea if you would, what if we could connect ourselves in this world through a vast network of air and glass? Could we go beyond just sharing information and knowledge, could we start to share our intelligence?

Could we create some kind of collective intelligence that goes beyond an individual or a group or a team, to create perhaps some kind of consciousness on a global basis? Well, if we could do this, we could attack some big problems in the world.

And I look at this thing and I, I don’t know, I get a lot of hope that maybe this smaller networked, open world that our kids inherit, might be a better one. And that this new age of networked intelligence can be an age of promise fulfilled and of peril unrequited. Let’s do this. Thank you.”

– Don Tapscott, business executive, author, consultant, and speaker specializing in business strategy.


Image: “Waiting in the sun for giants.” by Simon Harrod on Flickr.

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Type Of Male Bird Shown To Cater To The Current Desire Of His Mate

she'd like an orange

she'd like an orange

Our results raise the possibility that these birds may be capable of ascribing desire to their mates—acknowledging an ‘internal life’ in others like that of their own.”

– Ljerka Ostojic, researcher and coauthor of, Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays

A group of researchers at Cambridge University have discovered that a male bird, the Eurasian jay, can apparently cater to the current desire of its mate if it is in a committed relationship. Science Daily recently reported the details of the study:

Researchers tested mated jays and separated males from females. The females were fed one particular larvae, either wax moth or mealworm — a treat for the birds, like chocolates — allowing the males to observe from an adjacent compartment through a transparent window.

Once the pairs were reintroduced and the option of both larvae was presented, the males would choose to feed their partner the other type of larvae, to which she hadn’t previously had access — a change in diet welcomed by the female.

Through different tests using variations on food and visual access to the females during feeding, the researchers show that the males needed to actually see the females eating enough of and become sated by one type of larvae — called ‘specific satiety’ — to know to offer them the other type once reunited.

This demonstrates that the males’ sharing pattern was not a response to their partner’s behaviour indicating her preference but a response to the change in her internal state.

… The researchers believe that this ability to respond to another’s internal state in a cooperative situation might be important for species living in long-term relationships. Food-sharing is an important courtship behaviour for the Jays — so the ability to determine which food is currently desired by his partner might increase the male’s value as a mate.”

Similarly, With Humans…

While this information is all well and good for female birds, female women might wish to know if there is a correlation between male birds and men. Ostojic says,

A comparison might be a man giving his wife chocolates. The giving and receiving of chocolates is an important ‘pair-bonding’ ritual — but, a man that makes sure he gives his wife the chocolates she currently really wants will improve his bond with her much more effectively — getting in the good books, and proving himself a better life partner.”