Groupthink versus The Wisdom of Crowds: The Social Epistemology of Deliberation and Dissent

M Solomon - The Southern journal of philosophy, 2006 - Wiley Online Library
The Southern journal of philosophy, 2006Wiley Online Library
Trust in the practice of rational deliberation is widespread and largely unquestioned. This
paper uses recent work from business contexts to challenge the view that rational
deliberation in a group improves decisions. Pressure to reach consensus can, in fact, lead to
phenomena such as groupthink and to suppression of relevant data. Aggregation of
individual decisions, rather than deliberation to a consensus, surprisingly, can produce
better decisions than those of either group deliberation or individual expert judgment. I …
Abstract
Trust in the practice of rational deliberation is widespread and largely unquestioned. This paper uses recent work from business contexts to challenge the view that rational deliberation in a group improves decisions. Pressure to reach consensus can, in fact, lead to phenomena such as groupthink and to suppression of relevant data. Aggregation of individual decisions, rather than deliberation to a consensus, surprisingly, can produce better decisions than those of either group deliberation or individual expert judgment. I argue that dissent is epistemically valuable, not because of the discussion it can provoke (Mill's and Longino's view about the benefit of dissent), but because dissenting positions often are associated with particular data or insights that would be lost in consensus formation. Social epistemologists can usefully pay attention to various methods of aggregation of individual opinion for their effectiveness at realizing epistemic goals.
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