Making Dumb Groups Smarter

Behavioral research suggests some fairly simple ways to achieve “the wisdom of the crowds.” by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastie

From the Magazine (December 2014)

Josh McKible

Summary.

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Since the beginning of human history, people have made decisions in groups. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. If so, then three heads should be better than two, and four better still. With a hundred or a thousand, then, things are bound to go well—hence the supposed wisdom of crowds.

Read more on Psychology or related topic Leading teams

A version of this article appeared in the December 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard and serves as founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and he has held positions in the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His books include Decisions About Decisions (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and How to Become Famous (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024). He is also the co-author of Nudge (Yale University Press, 2008; Penguin, 2009, 2021), Noise (William Collins, 2021), and Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There (Atria, 2024).

Reid Hastie is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the coauthor of Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015).

Making Dumb Groups Smarter

Summary.

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