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    No Man Is An Island: The Wisdom Of Deliberating Crowds

    What can a competition to estimate the weight of an ox tell us about democratic decision-making? Cognitive scientist Tania Lombrozo considers two studies, conducted 100 years apart.
    by Tania Lombrozo Mar 12, 2018 3 minutes
    Source: SuperStock

    On March 7, 1907 — almost 111 years ago to the day — the English statistician Francis Galton published a peculiar observation.

    At a county fair held in Plymouth, 800 visitors had participated in a competition to guess the weight of an ox. While most people's estimates were too high or too low — falling an average of 37 lbs. away from the true weight of 1,198 lbs. — the median of everyone's guess was off by only 9 lbs., or less than

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