Collective Intelligence

Undergraduate / Graduate

An impactful discovery in human decision-making has been "crowd wisdom,'" or the ability of crowds to make better decisions than individuals. Classic wisdom of crowds theory is based on evidence gathered from studying large groups of diverse and independent decision-makers. Yet, most human decisions are reached in online settings of interconnected, like-minded people who challenge these criteria. In this course, students will engage with general science literature drawn from diverse disciplines (e.g., computer science, business, psychology, behavioral economics, political science, etc) to gain a better understanding of collective intelligence and how it emerges (i.e., principles and mechanisms) in diverse contexts, both online and offline. For instance, students will learn the theoretical background underpinning the wisdom of crowds, aggregation methods & techniques for pooling individual estimates in collective settings, network dynamics of collective intelligence, and applications of collective intelligence in society, business, and teams. Most class time will be spent discussing the assigned readings. In most weeks, students will write a short response memo to the assigned readings. By the end of the course, students will synthesize their knowledge to develop a term paper or research proposal that aims to advance some theoretical, methodological, or computational aspects of collective intelligence.