The "Wisdom of the Crowds" is simply a specialization of the Law of Big Numbers to average out the noise and leave the signal. As such, it has two weaknesses: (

The "Wisdom of the Crowds" is simply a specialization of the Law of Big Numbers to average out the noise and leave the signal. As such, it has two weaknesses: (1) if all you have as input is garbage, no matter how much garbage you put in, you will get garbage as output, e.g. "the Emperor's nose" (2) every action has to be independent, or the math behind it is no longer sound; due to the anchoring effect and social pressure, early noise tends to be amplified.