Conversation, Information, and Herd Behavior
实验证据表明，人们模仿他人（羊群行为）的一个重要原因是认为他人有信息支持其行为。本文指出，现有信息级联模型将群体间羊群行为差异归因于先行者的随机决策，但更常见的解释应是人际信息传递模式的不同，对话模式决定了群体内传递信息的类型。
Experimental evidence shows that an important reason why people tend to imitate others, to exhibit "herd behavior" is that they assume that the others have information that justifies their actions. The information cascade models of Banerjee [1992] and Bikhchandani et al. [1992] are significant developments in showing some general equilibrium and welfare effects of such rational imitative behavior. But these models as specified may be of limited applicability since they assert that differences across groups in herd behavior can be attributed to the random decisions of first movers. Differences across groups in herd behavior might be explained more often in terms of different modes of interpersonal information transmission. Patterns of human conversation imply great selectivity to the kinds of information transmitted within groups.