In science, there is a lot of judgment. And for some judgments, there is a true answer so that you can compare and see how accurate or what error was made. Averaging reduces noise. It doesn't improve the quality of the evidence on which judgments are made, but it eliminates noise.
Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients. Now imagine that the same doctor making a different decision depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. This is an example of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical.
Shermer speaks with Nobel Prize winning psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman about the detrimental effects of noise and what we can do to reduce both noise and bias, and make better decisions in: medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, bail, child protection, strategy, performance reviews, and personnel selection.