{"id":253215,"date":"2026-08-11T10:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/?post_type=glossary-terms&#038;p=253215"},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:43:48","slug":"wisdom-of-crowds","status":"publish","type":"glossary-terms","link":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom of Crowds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com\/mkt\/?src=glossGenAcc&amp;url=%2FUniversal%2FApplication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Open Account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant, including credentialed experts. The effect is usually attributed to three conditions holding, namely that contributions are decentralized so participants can draw on local knowledge, that viewpoints are diverse, and that judgments are formed reasonably independently of one another. When those conditions break down and participants influence each other heavily, the same aggregation mechanism can produce herding and information cascades instead, which is why market design and breadth of participation matter to whether aggregation improves accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/traders-insight\/ibkr-climate-energy\/the-value-of-climate-prediction-markets\/\">The Value of Climate Prediction Markets<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/traders-insight\/ibkr-climate-energy\/disaster-insurance-applications-of-forecast-contracts\/\">Disaster Insurance Applications of Forecast Contracts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/traders-insight\/ibkr-climate-energy\/when-are-scientific-claims-and-expert-assertions-untrustworthy-and-how-prediction-markets-can-help\/\">When are scientific claims and expert assertions untrustworthy? And how prediction markets can help.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant, including credentialed experts. The effect is usually attributed to three conditions holding, namely that contributions are decentralized so participants can draw on local knowledge, that viewpoints are diverse, and that judgments are formed reasonably independently of one another. When those conditions break down and participants influence each other heavily, the same aggregation mechanism can produce herding and information cascades instead, which is why market design and breadth of participation matter to whether aggregation improves accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"traders-glossary":[13251,13263],"class_list":["post-253215","glossary-terms","type-glossary-terms","status-publish","traders-glossary-trading-alphabet","traders-glossary-trading-terms-w"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Archives Term | IBKR Glossary | IBKR Campus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms\/253215\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wisdom of Crowds | IBKR Campus US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant including credentialed experts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IBKR Campus US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T20:43:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/wisdom-of-crowds\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/wisdom-of-crowds\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Wisdom of Crowds | IBKR Campus US\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#website\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2026-08-11T14:59:50+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-17T20:43:48+00:00\",\n\t            \"description\": \"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant including credentialed experts.\",\n\t            \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/wisdom-of-crowds\\\/#breadcrumb\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/wisdom-of-crowds\\\/\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/wisdom-of-crowds\\\/#breadcrumb\",\n\t            \"itemListElement\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 1,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Glossary\",\n\t                    \"item\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/glossary-terms\\\/\"\n\t                },\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 2,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Wisdom of Crowds\"\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#website\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"IBKR Campus US\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Financial Education from Interactive Brokers\",\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t                        \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t                    },\n\t                    \"query-input\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t                        \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t                        \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t                    }\n\t                }\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#organization\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Interactive Brokers\",\n\t            \"alternateName\": \"IBKR\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/\",\n\t            \"logo\": {\n\t                \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t                \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\n\t                \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.interactivebrokers.com\\\/campus\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/ibkr-campus-logo.jpg\",\n\t                \"contentUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.interactivebrokers.com\\\/campus\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2024\\\/05\\\/ibkr-campus-logo.jpg\",\n\t                \"width\": 669,\n\t                \"height\": 669,\n\t                \"caption\": \"Interactive Brokers\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/ibkrcampus.com\\\/campus\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"publishingPrinciples\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.interactivebrokers.com\\\/campus\\\/about-ibkr-campus\\\/\",\n\t            \"ethicsPolicy\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.interactivebrokers.com\\\/campus\\\/cyber-security-notice\\\/\"\n\t        }\n\t    ]\n\t}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archives Term | IBKR Glossary | IBKR Campus","description":"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms\/253215\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wisdom of Crowds | IBKR Campus US","og_description":"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant including credentialed experts.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/","og_site_name":"IBKR Campus US","article_modified_time":"2026-08-17T20:43:48+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/","url":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/","name":"Wisdom of Crowds | IBKR Campus US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T14:59:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-17T20:43:48+00:00","description":"The wisdom of crowds is the observation that an aggregate of many independent judgments is often more accurate than the judgment of any single participant including credentialed experts.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/wisdom-of-crowds\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Glossary","item":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wisdom of Crowds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/","name":"IBKR Campus US","description":"Financial Education from Interactive Brokers","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#organization","name":"Interactive Brokers","alternateName":"IBKR","url":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/ibkr-campus-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/ibkr-campus-logo.jpg","width":669,"height":669,"caption":"Interactive Brokers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/about-ibkr-campus\/","ethicsPolicy":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/cyber-security-notice\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms\/253215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary-terms"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms\/253215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253914,"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-terms\/253215\/revisions\/253914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"traders-glossary","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/traders-glossary?post=253215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}