Network Dynamics Group News Today

We trust our doctors with our lives, but the sad and scary fact is that doctors can get things wrong. Approximately 100,000 Americans die each year due to medical errors and recent studies have found that 10 to 15% of all clinical decisions regarding patient diagnosis and treatment are wrong.

Why independent cultures think alike when it comes to categories When it comes to categorization, such as interpreting and curating art, the dominant hypothesis is that people are born with categories already in their brains. But a new study from the Network Dynamics Group (NDG) at the Annenberg School for Communication has discovered a novel explanation. In an experiment in which people were asked to categorize unfamiliar shapes, individuals and small groups created many different unique categ...

Its not the human brain, exactly, that yields categorical consensus across disparate groups, researchers contend in a new paper, but the dynamics of consensus building among large groups of people.

Imagine you gave the exact same art pieces to two different groups of people and asked them to curate an art show. Later, imagine your surprise when the two art shows are nearly identical. How did these groups organize in the same way without communication? The dominant hypothesis is that people are born with categories already in their brains, but a new study has discovered a novel explanation.

 E-Mail Imagine you gave the exact same art pieces to two different groups of people and asked them to curate an art show. The art is radical and new. The groups never speak with one another, and they organize and plan all the installations independently. On opening night, imagine your surprise when the two art shows are nearly identical. How did these groups categorize and organize all the art the same way when they never spoke with one another? The dominant hypothesis is that people are bor...