Figure 1.

Relative quality of social versus personal information. Plot of quality of social information (I_s), i.e. the probability that the majority of the group is correct, against the quality of personal information (I_p), i.e. the probability that the information possessed by an individual is correct. Lines plotted are for odd group sizes (n) up to 51. To the left-hand side of the dashed line through the origin (n=1) are represented all scenarios where an individual should use social information; to the right-hand side of the line, an individual would do better to rely on its own personally acquired information.