Popular Wisdom

British scientist Francis Galton discovered the wisdom of the masses in 1906 while at a country fair. A contest there challenged people to guess the weight of an ox after it had been slaughtered and dressed. About 800 people tried their luck. Galton took all the guesses and found their average, expecting it to be wildly inaccurate. But it wasn't. The slaughtered ox weighed 1,198 pounds. The crowd had collectively guessed a weight of 1,197 pounds.