Against All Odds: Tentative Steps toward Efficient Information Sharing in Groups

Abstract

When groups face difficult problems, the voices of experts may be lost in the noise of others’ contributions. We present results from a “naturally noisy” setting, a large first-year undergraduate class, in which the expert’s voice was “lost” to such a degree that bringing forward even more inferior information was optimal. A single individual had little chance to improve the outcome and coordinating with the whole group was impossible. In this setting, we examined the change in behavior before and after people could talk to their neighbors. We found that the number of people who reduced noise by holding back their information strongly and significantly increased.

Experiments on Communication in Games: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Schlangenotto, Schnedler, and Vadovič [2] use a classroom experiment to examine the effect of face-to-face, local communication in a common-value majority voting game. A group of 35 subjects vote for which of two colors comprises the majority of balls in an urn, with the option to abstain.…”