The Folly of Crowds? (Forum for European Philosophy “Consilience” public discussion)

Mind sharing, crowdsourcing, online ratings – in our modern world we are constantly exposed to the opinion of the group. We are told that crowds are wise (‘Two heads are better than one’ Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) and are cautioned against the madness of the mobs (‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’). When is the crowd wise and when is it prone to madness?

Peter Ayton (@Thruthal) is Professor of Psychology at City University London.

Sepideh Bazazi is a researcher at the Centre on Animal Cognition, DYNACTOM, Université Paul Sabatier.

Chris Frith is a psychologist and Professor Emeritus at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London.

Chair: Bahador Bahrami is based at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSEcrowds