Herd Behavior
The Basic Idea
It’s a familiar scene in a nature documentary. Thousands of wildebeests are fleeing together from the pursuit of a lion. Aerial footage follows the wildebeests moving together, leaving a trail of dust preceded by the thundering of countless hooves. It’s an epic image, and we marvel in the scope of the herd acting as a single unit. We might think how different we are, as individualized human beings, acting on our own accord. But with a closer look, we may realize that we are more like the wildebeests than we first believe.
It’s no secret that humans are social creatures. Our motives in presenting an idealized social identity to our peers guide much of our behavior, and although some of these social influences can result in our attempt to project individuality (at least in North America), there are some situations where we do the opposite – we follow the herd; our heads go down and we do what everyone else is doing.
It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one.
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
