Our beliefs are inextricably shaped through communication with others. Furthermore, even conversation we conduct in pairs may itself be taking place across a wider, connected social network. Our communications, and with that our thoughts, are consequently typically those of individuals in collectives. This has fundamental consequences with respect to how our beliefs are shaped. This article examines the role of dependence on our beliefs and seeks to demonstrate its importance with respect to key phenomena involving collectives that have been taken to indicate irrationality. It is argued that (with the benefit of hindsight) these phenomena no longer seem surprising when one considers the multiple dependencies that govern information acquisition and the evaluation of cognitive agents in their normal (i.e., social) context.

中文翻译：

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个人、集体和集体中的个人：依赖性不可消除的作用。


我们的信念是通过与他人的沟通密不可分地形成的。此外，即使我们成对进行的对话本身也可能是在更广泛、互联的社交网络中进行的。因此，我们的交流以及我们的思想通常是集体中个人的交流。这对于我们的信念如何形成具有根本性的影响。本文探讨了依赖我们信念的作用，并试图证明其对于涉及集体的关键现象的重要性，这些现象被认为表明了非理性。有人认为，（事后看来）当人们考虑到在正常（即社会）环境中控制信息获取和认知主体评估的多重依赖性时，这些现象似乎不再令人惊讶。