What is information cascade in Sociology?

  • This refers to a social phenomenon where people make decisions purely based on the choices made by others, thus in effect ignoring any personal information that they may possess about a certain situation.
  • It is prevalent, for instance, in the world of business where firms may simply copy the actions of other firms instead of making decisions based on the independent evaluation of the facts.
  • The news industry is also prone to information cascades when false information that is initially broadcast by a few channels is assumed to be true by others without any verification, thus leading to the widespread propagation of false information to the public.

Source:TH

Leave a Reply