The idea of guiding decisions (business or otherwise) on data sounds so …infallible. Unfortunately, the same data can mean different things to different people. You see, we humans have a tendency to seek data that supports our original point of view. What’s worse, finding contradictory data may actually make us believe in the wrong view EVEN MORE. “Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger” wrote Joe Keohane in How Facts Backfire (The Boston Globe).
Wait. What???
Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, describes this tendency as “backfire”. True, this is research on politics and not on decision making in business... but I, for one, am not going to disregard expert information that indicates that I may be making poor judgments! :^)
In fact (ha!), Scientific American’s 60-Second Mind reports on another study that shows that We Only Trust Experts If They Agree with Us.
Consider this in the context of decision making in the business world. For example, if an employee proposed one strategy and then changed her mind based on new data, wouldn’t that be viewed negatively? Most of the time, the answer is yes—and that’s a problem.
The moral of the story for those of us in the business world? First, be aware of your human flaws and make a conscious effort to be genuinely open to new data and new expert opinion. Second, commend that employee who overcomes her human tendency to (only) validate her point of view and changes her mind!
