Squeaky wheel equilibria

Mismatches between vocal-ness and collective desire, NIMBYism, intolerance

2024-05-04 — 2024-05-04

Wherein the preeminence of vocal minorities is examined, and the role of persistent public noise—manifested in street commerce and protest—is shown to determine prevailing social standards.

collective knowledge

communicating

cooperation

culture

distributed

economics

insurgency

mind

networks

wonk

If the social standard is set by the most vocal, when does that correspond to a desirable state of affairs, and when not?

1 Incoming

Commentary: Merchants Are Getting People Killed
Nassim Taleb, The most intolerant wins
noise pollution

2 References

Buntaine, Greenstone, He, et al. 2024. “Does the Squeaky Wheel Get More Grease? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Citizen Participation on Environmental Governance in China.” American Economic Review.

Hawkins, Yudkin, Juan-Torres, et al. 2019. “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape.” Preprint.

Kuran. 1997. Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification.

Lambert, Kahn, and Apple. 2003. “Pluralistic Ignorance and Hooking up.” The Journal of Sex Research.

Ma, Sun, and Kekre. 2015. “The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease—An Empirical Analysis of Customer Voice and Firm Intervention on Twitter.” Marketing Science.

O’Gorman, and Garry. 1976. “Pluralistic Ignorance—A Replication and Extension.” Public Opinion Quarterly.

Prentice, and Miller. 1996. “Pluralistic Ignorance and the Perpetuation of Social Norms by Unwitting Actors.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.

Savage, Nix, Whitehead, et al. 1990. “Beyond the Squeaky Wheel: Strategies for Assessing and Managing Organizational Stakeholders.” Academy of Management Proceedings.