Service of Proof
November 30th, 2009
Categories: Communications, Interior Design, Manipulation, Marketing, Newspapers, Poor, Public Relations
I was a teen when I first became aware of what Jason Zweig covered in The Wall Street Journal on November 19– “How to Ignore the Yes-Man in Your Head.” He wrote: “…your own mind acts like a compulsive yes-man who echoes whatever you want to believe. Psychologists call the mental gremlin the ‘confirmation bias.’”
As I recall, I’d notice that if I wanted to buy a pair of, say, red shoes, I’d begin to see them all over town–on the street, subway and in busses. I’d be blown away at how many red shoes there were, even though I’d never before been aware of any.
Zweig’s lead– “A mind is a terrible thing to change,” says it all. He goes on, “You decide gold is a good bet to hedge against inflation, and suddenly the news seems to be teeming with signs of a falling dollar and rising prices down the road.” He quotes Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist, “We’re all mentally lazy. It’s simply easier to focus our attention on data that supports our hypothesis, rather than to seek out evidence that might disprove it.”
His article leads to a huge discussion as to how best to plan an investment strategy. Never my specialty, these days it challenges me even more.
But don’t newspaper reporters, magazine editors and PR people play the same mind games?
One article from a major newspaper stands out in my mind. As the economy slid last fall, three or four luxury French restaurants opened in New York City and the reporter wrote something such as “Maybe there is no word for ‘recession’ in French.” The slant of the article was that the timing of these restaurants couldn’t be worse and what was with the restaurateurs? But midway through the article the writer noted that it can take a while to find the perfect property in New York City, negotiate the rent and a few years to identify the architect and interior design team to create and build the perfect space. Facts, schmacts, he didn’t change the slant of his story.
I worked for a magazine editor who came in one day saying, “Last night, I went to a wonderful dinner party at a magnificent apartment. The walls were citron. Yellow is obviously in. Let’s do a story on yellow living rooms.” She launched a feature with this focus group of one. I wish I could remember how hard it was for us to find a yellow living room to photograph that would resonate with our readers. We were so frantic putting out a weekly with skeleton staff and no stories in the bank–the magazine was new–it’s amazing I remember any details.
I’ve also been guilty of thinking I knew where a story would go before researching the facts and making the story work anyway. For a wallpaper client, I planned a feature about what color gurus** select for their office walls, expecting to dot the piece with all sorts of examples to promote the latest colors in my client’s products. [**Some make a living by forecasting colors in different industries.] Turns out, all three experts surrounded themselves in white. They handled so many colors and patterns that they required a neutral background that didn’t distract them. Those were great interviews so I used them anyway and chose white wallpapers as examples.
And how many people quote the Bible to prove their point, even if they take words out of context?
Have you let your preconceived ideas affect decisions in any part of your life to good or ill effect?
I think we all, at times, let our preconceived notions get in the way of clear thinking. It’s called profiling when the police do it, but let’s admit that we all do it in our own ways.
I remember years ago working with a client who had a deep southern accent. My stereotyped prejudices came out and, because of her slow speech and thick accent, I decided she wasn’t very sharp. Thank goodness I never let those inner thoughts slip out, because over time she proved to be one of the sharpest marketers I had worked with.
Jeanne,
It is interesting that you chose the story from the Wall Street Journal to start off this essay on this most relevant topic. The financial community, aided by squadrons of well paid assorted shrinks, behaviorists and whatever, has been struggling with how to compensate for this very human tendency toward “wishful thinking/hearing what you want to hear/ seeing what you expect to see” for decades, if not centuries. Despite all their efforts, the markets still go up and down for reasons that are apparent to nobody.
On a more serious note, it was precisely this phenomenon which led the American government to invade Iraq in 2003, and is at work today influencing its intentions towards Afghanistan.
David, Most of my clients have lived around the country and many of them admit that they have [not the greatest] ideas about NYC and the people who work here, come to think of it! It’s fun to surprise them.
Claude, The problem I have now, when it comes to investing my dwindling savings, is that nothing makes sense so my inner voice, the “yes woman in my head,” isn’t communicating–not even in a whisper.
It’s true what you say. The “don’t worry me with the facts” way of thinking is also the reason why people can listen to songs and misinterpret them. They hear a song they like (eg, “Born in the USA” or “I’ll be Watching You”) and they want it to be about something they like (patriotism, ever-lasting love) instead of disillusionment or stalking.
I guess the trick is to keep an open mind but also listen to your inner voice (eg, when some young kids were getting a little too close to my sister on the streets of Brooklyn, she didn’t want to cross the street because she didn’t want to offend them—until they took her knapsack. Luckily, a big, strong, eye-patch-wearing man was in front of them and demanded they drop her bag. Which they did. And he walked her home before heading to his mom’s. Only now—more than 20 years later—did she share with me the fact that the man was brandishing a knife—luckily, not at her!)
In a far less important instance, Nancy, I most recently didn’t listen to my inner voice that told me to ask the cashier at a grocery store and the bagger–who was the manager–to stop chatting because they would make a mistake. Neither was focusing on their jobs. In mid-packing the manager said, “I have to make a call,” and stalked off.
But before the manager left, not wanting to be a grouch, I said nothing.
As I turned to leave the store, I saw my NY Times. It was nowhere near my grocery cart. It had been tossed on top of a pile of grocery bags. I had to stretch to reach for it. The cashier had already gone on to the next customer.
When I got home, I found that they’d not packed my meat, which was on the bill…..When I called [the place is 45 mins from the house] the man in customer service said, “Oh, yes, the cashier ran after you.” She didn’t run very far or very fast. I was parked across from the door. Further, after loading my bags in the car, I returned to get a fabulous cider donut that was being made right outside the door…..I blame myself because I didn’t listen to my inner voice that was jumping up and down.