Concept · Cognitive Bias: Social and group biases

Shared information bias

Origin: Stasser & Titus, 1985

Biological Parallel

Honeybee swarms deciding between nest sites heavily weight information from scouts that visit the same location—creating redundant confirmation of known options while unique discoveries by solitary scouts get diluted. This shared information bias paradoxically helps: it prevents decision paralysis from too many options and amplifies strong signals. Evolution optimized for decisive action with adequate information, not exhaustive consideration of all possibilities.