How the Low-Fat, Low-Fact Cascade Just Keeps Rolling Along
As seen in class, an information cascade occurs when a person (or people) sees or observes the actions of others, then despite their personal signals or first thoughts, they choose to abandon their preliminary action and engages in the same act. One example from this article is the ongoing cascade that low-fat diets prolong your life. The author uses this example to shed light on why and how scientists and others fall into cascades. The author also points out that an information cascade can be based on correct and incorrect beliefs. Though the low-fat diet cascade may be incorrect, some cascades–such as global warming–are true.
The real danger of information cascades lie its easiness to form. It is extremely easy for large groups of people to reach a “consensus” without most of them really understanding the issue. And once a critical mass of people starts a trend, the rest make the rational decision to go along because they figure the trend-setters can’t all be wrong. Unfortunately this will cause “the blind to lead the blind” as stated by the author.
Along with this, the author points out another interesting fact. According to Dr.Welsh, an economist at Brown University, cascades have proved that they (cascades) occur when the choice/decision/action is binary. He uses the low-fat diet as an example. If people were asked their thoughts on the diet a cascade wont form, but given the decision of wether to endorse it or not then a cascade is sure to form (as it has).
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/how-the-low-fat-low-fact-cascade-just-keeps-rolling-along/?_r=0