Collective wisdom
Collective wisdom, also called group wisdom and
Collective intelligence, which is sometimes used synonymously with collective wisdom, is more of a shared decision process than collective wisdom. Unlike collective wisdom, collective intelligence is not uniquely human and has been associated with animal and plant life. Collective intelligence is basically consensus-driven decision-making, whereas collective wisdom is not necessarily focused on the decision process. Collective wisdom is a more amorphous phenomenon which can be characterized by collective learning over time.
History
Collective wisdom, which may be said to have a more distinctly human quality than collective intelligence, is contained in such early works as
Dave Pollard's restatement of Collective wisdom:
"Many cognitive, coordination and cooperation problems are best solved by canvassing groups (the larger the better) of reasonably informed, unbiased, engaged people. The group's answer is almost invariably much better than any individual expert's answer, even better than the best answer of the experts in the group."
Contemporary definition and research
Harnessing the collective wisdom of people is an area of intense contemporary interest and cutting-edge research. The application of the term to methodologies that are designed to harness collective wisdom is credited to the work of
Collective Wisdom Initiative
The Collective Wisdom Initiative was formed in 2000 with the support of the Fetzer Institute for the purpose of gathering material on the research, theory, and practice of collective wisdom. It was a collaboration of practitioners and academics in areas such as business, health care, mental health, education, criminal justice, and conflict resolution.[6] Several of the founding members subsequently co-authored The Power of Collective Wisdom. In this, six stances or principles, which support the power of collective wisdom are presented: deep listening, suspension of certainty, seeing whole systems/seeking diverse perspectives, respect for other/group discernment, welcoming all that is arising, and trust in the transcendent.[7]
Two strands of thought relating to collective wisdom follow very different paths. The first suggests that aggregates of people and information will succeed in advancing wisdom, that wisdom is built on the accumulation of data and knowledge, without a need for judgement or qualification. Some have faulted this belief for failing to take into account the importance of 'adaptive assessment'.[8] The second argues that wisdom is only possible in reflective states of mind, including metacognition. According to Alan Briskin, wisdom requires systematic reflection on the inner self and the outer states of social order. Mark Baurelein has made the case that the hypercommunication of knowledge has hobbled rather than promoted intellectual development.[9]
See also
- Co-intelligence
- Crowd psychology
- Delphi method
- Erroneous priorities effect
- Group intelligence
- Groupthink
- Herd instinct
- Herd mentality
- Information cascade
- Predictive market
- Spreadthink
- The Wisdom of Crowds
- Wisdom of the crowd
- The Wikiversity course on Pursuing Collective Wisdom
References and further reading
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.wdf.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Development Communication Praxis". Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
- ^ Christakis, A.N. and Bausch, K. (2006). How People Harness their Collective Wisdom and Power, Information Age Publishing, Greenwich, CT.
- ^ Flanagan, T.R., and Christakis, A.N. (2010) The Talking Point: Creating an Environment for ExploringComplex Meaning, Information Age Publishing, Greenwich, CT.
- ^ Wisdom Research Network of the University of Chicago,
- ISBN 978-1-4587-3224-8.
- ^ Mallette, Leo (2010). "The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan". Graziadio Business Review. 13 (1). Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ^ Cookson, Jr., Peter J. (September 2009). "What Would Socrates Say?". Educational Leadership. 67 (1): 8–14. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ^ Cookson, Jr., Peter J. (September 2009). "What Would Socrates Say?". Educational Leadership. 67 (1): 8–14. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- Atlee, Tom, The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All. (2004) The Writers’ Collective, Cranston, Rhode Island.
- Bloom, Howard, The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. (2000) John Wiley & Sons, New York.
- Flor, Alexander G. Chapter 10. Communication, Culture and the Collective Psyche. Development Communication Praxis. (2007) University of the Philippines – Open University Press. Diliman, Philippines.
- Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software. (2001) Scribner, New York.
- Lee, Gerald Stanley, Crowds. A Moving-picture of Democracy. Doubleday, Page & Company. (1913) Project Gutenberg.
- Le Bon, Gustave, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. (1895) Project Gutenberg.
- Rogers, E. M., Diffusion of Innovations (5th Ed.). (2003) Free Press, New York.
- Suroweicki, James, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations: Boston: Little, Brown, Boston.
- Sunstein,Cass R., Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. (2006) Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom