Reply To Bruggeman: Learning Is Robust To Noise In Decentralized Networks

Our study (1) presents a theoretical model and experimental test of how social influence affects the wisdom of crowds. Our theoretical simulations (SI appendix of ref. 1) show that the accuracy of the group mean can improve in decentralized networks when the weight that individuals place on their own estimates is positively correlated with their accuracy. Empirically, our findings confirm this prediction, showing that a correlation between individual accuracy and self-weight can explain how social influence improves the mean of the group estimate. Bruggeman (2) raises the insightful concern that noise in the relationship between accuracy and self-weight might undermine the collective learning process. …