New work w H Shirado & @fcraw4d: In experiments (N=2480 in 108 groups) simulating an unpredictable situation, social networks (in certain conditions) functioned poorly as pathways for inconvenient truths that people would rather ignore. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.109… @RSocPublishing 1/ 
We manipulated the sorts of interpersonal communication that were permissible and varied group topology and size. We found that communication networks suppress necessary actions because of the spontaneous and diffuse emergence of false reassurance. 2/
At the individual level, subjects had thresholds for responding to social information that were sensitive to the negativity, but not the actual accuracy, of the signals being transmitted, even from a knowledgeable informant. 3/
