Comments on: Exploiting the Herd, A Case Study http://www.micromotives.com/2006/08/exploiting-the-herd-a-case-study/ The Science & Art of Decision Making Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:44:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Brock Trenchard http://www.micromotives.com/2006/08/exploiting-the-herd-a-case-study/#comment-26422 Brock Trenchard Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:56:04 +0000 http://www.micromotives.com/2006/08/exploiting-the-herd-a-case-study/#comment-26422 This is an interesting phenomenon. I briefly looked at the article, and I find it intriguing. I think it can have various social contagion applications. I personally am interested in such social contagion effects on the internet such as 'running people off of communities or out of town', or where large numbers of people become 'moblike' based on (limited) information from other people. Witchhunts may be an example of such effects. I am particularly interested in such effects that occur on the internet. While this is not business related, I am wondering if you know of any sources that I might find that related to such effects, especially for those involving the internet. Brock This is an interesting phenomenon. I briefly looked at the article, and I find it intriguing. I think it can have various social contagion applications. I personally am interested in such social contagion effects on the internet such as ‘running people off of communities or out of town’, or where large numbers of people become ‘moblike’ based on (limited) information from other people. Witchhunts may be an example of such effects. I am particularly interested in such effects that occur on the internet. While this is not business related, I am wondering if you know of any sources that I might find that related to such effects, especially for those involving the internet.

Brock

]]> By: Exploiting the Herd: Case Study Two — Micromotives http://www.micromotives.com/2006/08/exploiting-the-herd-a-case-study/#comment-141 Exploiting the Herd: Case Study Two — Micromotives Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:07:42 +0000 http://www.micromotives.com/2006/08/exploiting-the-herd-a-case-study/#comment-141 [...] My post of last week on exploiting the herd raised some discussion about the extent to which intentional manipulation of popularity measures is unethical. Before addressing this question, I’d like to present another example of the same type of manipulation, this one more current and widespread. Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner takes a look at evidence that move studios give incentives to theaters to inflate the opening weekend sales numbers for a movie, knowing that those stats can be crucial to the longer-term financial success of the movie. I happened to be riding to work with an exec from one of the major studios this morning, and he mentioned that the studios are increasingly making deals with theaters to inflate opening numbers. In particular, they will give the theaters very high revenue share for the first X days of the movie (he mentioned 100% for the first 3 days), incentivizing the theater to maximize the number of screens the movie’s shown on, inflating opening numbers. [...] [...] My post of last week on exploiting the herd raised some discussion about the extent to which intentional manipulation of popularity measures is unethical. Before addressing this question, I’d like to present another example of the same type of manipulation, this one more current and widespread. Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner takes a look at evidence that move studios give incentives to theaters to inflate the opening weekend sales numbers for a movie, knowing that those stats can be crucial to the longer-term financial success of the movie. I happened to be riding to work with an exec from one of the major studios this morning, and he mentioned that the studios are increasingly making deals with theaters to inflate opening numbers. In particular, they will give the theaters very high revenue share for the first X days of the movie (he mentioned 100% for the first 3 days), incentivizing the theater to maximize the number of screens the movie’s shown on, inflating opening numbers. [...]

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