RE: Spontaneous Group Accuracy

Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Mon, 1 Feb 1999 08:08:57 -0600

Ian Goddard wrote:
> Has anyone heard of "Spontaneous Group Accuracy" (SGA)?
> I've not been able to find any more about SGA than the
> following from a Libertarian Party fund-raising letter:

My understanding is that the phenomenon is real, but it only occurs with certain types of questions. It works if the average person's answer is fairly close to the correct one, because the errors tend to average out. Otherwise it doesn't work at all - it just gives you a read on what the conventional wisdom is, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with reality.

Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com