Friday, July 23, 2010

Are We Dumber Than Fish?

Regular readers know my liking for ABC's Catalyst. A little while ago they did a story on groups of animals making collective snap-decisions.


From research on fish, it seems that the bulk of the group will wait for the 'expert' fish to make a decision, then everyone will follow immediately. Not only are the decisions made quicker (because the expert is deciding) but the accuracy is also far higher than when each fish is left to decide for itself.

I'm sure the link to climate change is obvious. We have the expert advice on what actions we should take - but how quick are we to act? I'm sure if fish were this slow to act, they'd by shark-lunch by now.

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