Follow the Leader?

Hat tip to Frank Niles, who often sends me these kinds of interesting social science articles. Here's the key quote.

It turns out that only a few individuals in a group need to know where they are going in order to lead the group, even if they don't do anything to communicate their leadership role other than move. Also, the larger a group gets, the smaller the percentage of "knowledgeable" or "leader" individuals that are needed. The limit seems to be about five percent; the remaining 95 percent simply followed the herd.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/the-mathematics-of-fish-schools-and-flocks-of-humans.ars