Consensus by identifying extremists
Theory and Decision. An International Journal for Multidisciplinary Advances in Decision Science, vol. 44, no. 3, 1998, pp. 293–301
Abstract
Given a finite state space and common priors, common knowledge of the identity of an agent with the minimal (or maximal) expectation of a random variable implies ‘consensus’, i.e., common knowledge of common expectations. This ‘extremist’ statistic induces consensus when repeatedly announced, and yet, with n agents, requires at most log2n bits to broadcast.
