From the various examples cited in class, we have seen that information cascades are a very real, and in some cases dangerous, phenomenon. The danger, of course, comes from the fact that in a cascade, people willfully ignore any signal that the choice they are about to make may be incorrect. This conformism, although beneficial […]

“Hershey’s major shareholder pledges to keep power”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070401/bs_nm/hershey_cadbury_wsj_dc
The article I read was discussing the current situation of share ownership within the Hershey’s corporation. There had been speculation of a merger with a Cadbury in Britain, but recent information released by the majority shareholders makes that seem unlikely to happen. Hershey’s Trust who is the […]

When it comes to athletic prowess, don’t believe your eyes.

The above link is New Yorker article written by Malcolm Gladwell on the highly esteemed Allen Iverson. Iverson is ranked as one of the best players of the game by coaches and fans alike. He is an exciting player to watch but is he […]

Jumping on the Bandwagon
In this blog article, “Jumping on the Bandwagon,” Ian Cooper analyzes the rise and fall of the stock market, specifically, Black Monday, and how it occurred as a result of an information cascade among investors. A few investors may latch on to a bit of information and try to make a quick […]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/03/29/no.facebook.lent/

Every year for lent, Catholics and other people who celebrate lent are adding new vices to their list of things to give up. Instead of the usual foods, drinks, or cigarettes, people are forfeiting their online social networks for the Lenten season. Online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook and Instant […]

Jumping On The Bandwagon Effect
American Venture Magazine has an interesting article (from a bit ago) on the effect of “Bandwagons” (in other words information cascades) on the world of venture capitalism. Venture capitalist investments tend to not be taken lightly as investing in this sense is a very high-risk business. A great deal of research […]

The paper Imperfect Learning and Error Cascades in Sequential Guessing Games: An Experiment describes an experiment in which students played Chinos, a Spanish parlor game. In this game each player hides a number of coins or other small items in his or her hand. Then each player must guess the number of items in each […]

The IEEE article “Overview of Sensor Networks” (Aug 2004) provides a concise summary on what wireless sensor networks are, their applications, and the challenges in their design.  Wireless sensor networks are collections of small computing devices with some sensing ability constrained by low computing capability and low energy restrictions.  Each device is ineffective on its […]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/33643.html
This article talks about information cascades in military intelligence, which is partly the reason that certain events could not have been predicted or “wrong” decisions were made – when thinking ex-post. A few examples the author uses are the inability to prevent 9/11 with vague warnings, the situation with “yellowcake uranium,” and deadly aluminum […]

“What Other People Say May Change What You See”
Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, Jun 28, 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/science/28brai.html?ex=1175400000&en=39e2d97417286c29&ei=5070
            In the 1950’s, social psychologist Dr. Solomon Asch performed a simple experiment that had dramatic results. He took two index cards and on one of them he drew three lines of different lengths and labeled them A, B and […]