The term emerged during the twentieth century, in science fiction, biology and psychology. It is used synonymously with group-think, crowd wisdom and collective intelligence, but what does it mean and how relevant is it, in business and social contexts?
Is it, like group-think, a desire to conform that limits innovation and new ideas?
Maybe it is the ability of a diverse crowd to come up with a more accurate and reliable opinion than any one expert.
Could it be an intellect that emerges from collective interactions within a community, but is more powerful than the sum of all?
Or maybe it is a set of innate, evolved and instinctive behaviours that ensures group survival.
One thing is clear – we should use a term only when we are clear what we mean by it. The temptation to use Hivemind, or something like it, is strong however because our lives are influenced by the expectations of others and by how we interpret and respond to what we perceive. We live in societies, communities, companies and organizations that simultaneously oblige some form of compliance in order to win acceptance, whilst responding to new and original proposals with some level of curiosity, interest and respect.
If we live in it, we should know how it works, right? So this is the theme of the next SWISSUES Forvm event on Thursday 2nd July at 18:00 CET
Register at https://luma.com/jurmwtct
Want to learn more?
Here is a list of sources to get you started.
Derek Sivers, How to Start a Movement
A single dancer at a music festival becomes a movement in under three minutes. Sivers argues that it is the first follower, not the leader, who transforms a lone individual into something collective. Widely known; worth watching again with hivemind in mind.
TED Video, 3 minutes:
Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Decision Making
Seeley’s research shows how bee swarms choose a new nest site through competing advocates, inhibition signals, and quorum thresholds — a process closer to structured debate than instinct.
YouTube Video, 9 minutes:
Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Democracy
The full scientific account of how honeybee swarms make collective decisions about where to live. Seeley draws explicit parallels to human decision-making groups, and concludes that good collective decisions require shared interests, minimized leader influence, genuine debate, and diverse options.
Book description: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691147215/honeybee-democracy?srsltid=AfmBOorxZWDLiB9VLf8CSZ-k5bLmF0UidUsidxrlqo7YZTHpeSBJCg35
James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds (2004)
The foundational popular text on collective intelligence. Starting from Francis Galton’s 1906 discovery that a crowd at a livestock fair guessed an ox’s weight almost exactly, Surowiecki argues that diverse, independent groups reliably outperform individual experts — under the right conditions. The conditions matter as much as the thesis.
Book description: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
Lars Chittka, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton, 2022)
A direct challenge to the hivemind caricature: individual bees have distinct personalities, can learn by observation, count, use simple tools, and may possess rudimentary consciousness. The collective intelligence of the hive turns out to rest on something richer at the node level than anyone expected.
Book description: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691253893/the-mind-of-a-bee?srsltid=AfmBOooQMkESlIPrGVlsZ1Q4ljlPPTyZwHtdEM7qkFMb75hxeDRZIxTZ
Robert Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice (1984)
The canonical account of why people comply, conform, and copy. His concept of social proof is probably the most direct behavioural economics entry point into hivemind dynamics. Most people in business will have encountered this; fewer will have thought of it in this context.
Book description: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Practice-Robert-B-Cialdini/dp/0205609996
Irving L Janis, Groupthink
When the hivemind goes wrong. This is the the original study of how cohesive groups — including Kennedy’s advisors during the Bay of Pigs — make catastrophically bad decisions by suppressing internal dissent. The dark side of collective intelligence.
Original MIT summary – Readings in Managerial Psychology: https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Dynamics/Janis_Groupthink.pdf