The “wisdom of crowds” would only apply if everyone is trying to actually get the answer right, and if the errors of incompetence are somewhat random. A large number of intentional pranksters (or one prankster who says “a googolplex”) can predictably screw up the average by introducing large variance or acting in a non-random fashion.
The “wisdom of crowds” would only apply if everyone is trying to actually get the answer right, and if the errors of incompetence are somewhat random. A large number of intentional pranksters (or one prankster who says “a googolplex”) can predictably screw up the average by introducing large variance or acting in a non-random fashion.