What is information cascade in Sociology

This refers to a social phenomenon where people make decisions purely based on the choices made by others, thus in effect ignoring any personal information that they may possess about a certain situation.

It is prevalent, for instance, in the world of business where firms may simply copy the actions of other firms instead of making decisions based on the independent evaluation of the facts.

The news industry is also prone to information cascades when false information that is initially broadcast by a few channels is assumed to be true by others without any verification, thus leading to the widespread propagation of false information to the public.

Source: The Hindu, 22/10/2018