Why do sometimes very intelligent and rational people do the stupidest things and act in the most irrational way possible? I am sure that all of us have done choices and then regretted them. This is the phenomenon of Sway, the irresistible pull of irrational behavior. The Brafman brothers, in this book, not only explain the whys of Sway, but also try to show how this phenomenon can be avoided.
There are many examples of the Sway behavior.
The little girl Amy and her mother for two days went to emergency room in panic. The two-year-old girl was experiencing stomach pain. The doctors send her home without making any tests. The doctors were convinced that the mother was overreacting. And the third day they were back in the emergency room. It was only when the little girl lost consciousness that the doctors realized that there was something wrong with her. But it was too late, the little girl was dead. The doctors made a very irrational decision when they sent the little girl home without running any test, only because her mother seemed to be the type of parent that would overreact.
The captain Jacob Van Zanten, one of the most experienced and accomplished pilots in the world, was the pilot of KLM Flight 4805, decided to take off the plane in the middle of fog, without knowing anything about the vital take off clearance. He decided to takke of to avoid any delay. When the plane was gaining momentum, out of nowhere, appeared to him a Pan AM 747 parked across the runaway. There was a crash and the KLM plane was exploded, and Van Zanten, and all of his passengers were killed. 584 people were dead that day. Why would this great pilot, the head of safety, make such an irresponsible decision and through all the rules out of the window?
There are many examples from our daily life. Many times we make dangerous moves into the oncoming traffic, risking our life and the lives of others, just to save five ore more minutes on the road. Mos of times we tend to fall in love when there is more danger involved.
There are many examples from economics. Referring to the traditional economic theory, people should react to the price change equally whether the price moves down or up. But, practically, if the price goes up, we by a little less, if the price goes down a bit, we buy a little more. The buyers are more sensitive to the price increase than to the price decrease.
There are these dynamic forces inside us that influence and determine every aspect of our personal and business lives.
According to this book, there are three basic conditions that make us sway from the rational to the irrational:
- Loss fear - the fear of loosing something, time, money, somebody, reputation, etc.
- Force of commitment – the inability to change course even when we know that the way we are following is the wrong one and destined for failure, because we have committed and we can not stop.
- Value attribution – a quick definition in our mind of what is worthy of our attention. Some things have more value for us and some less. This distorts our decision making.
When things go wrong, we can apply a short-term Band-Aid solution or remember that this is only a small misstep in the grand scheme of things. But having a long-term plan is the key of concealing our fear of loss. Of course, our natural tendency to avoid the fear of loss can be distort when we concentrate on short-term goals, and in the other hand, adopting the long view, the immediate potential losses doesn’t look as meaning.
I think that we should start a conversation with ourselves, before taking any decision. Why do I do that? What can I do to more order to my thinking? We should remind to step back, find long-term solutions, and think again. This could save time, money, our reputation, and save our lives and the lives of others.
It is better to start a conversation with ourselves, before taking any decision in order to be in peace with our self for the rest and save our lives and the lives of others. One of my friend didn't do this before bring her daughter in a province hospital and after a venous injection she lost her daughter. She can't be in peace with herself for all the rest of her life only for this conversation that she didn't do "Why do I do that".
ReplyDeleteHi Ergys,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you saying that “Many times we make dangerous moves into the oncoming traffic...” I think that for different people, different explanations of this kind of behavior can be given. Some of them may be pulled by the commitment factor and others by the influence of the group (group conformity) I mean that when we watch people moving faster and leaving us behind we feel like we have also to go faster and may be sometimes even surpassing the limits just to join the group and not to be left behind. In this case we forget the danger that we are facing ,and sometimes just good God can help us from some people’s movements in the traffic.
Hello Ergys
ReplyDeleteI think when our actions can provoke dangerous causes, the best think is to take the opinion of the people who are with you, because you share the responsibility and you can be defend yourself from any of the consequences
Regards
Florian Shushku
we may also take for example the story about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? individuals generally admire the wealthy, and as a result when a contestant on the show uses Ask the Audience life-line the audience gives the correct answer more than 90% of the time. Russians are suspicious of the wealthy as they believe that they have gotten rich at the expense of the many. This was based on the experiences just after the fall of communism in the early 90's. Subsequently, very, very rarely does the audience in the Russian version of the show ever give the correct answer. In-fact is seems like the audience purposefully gives the wrong answer, just to screw with the contestants. Different value systems, different responses. Each chapter goes through a different factor that sways us from rational decision making, culminating in an ending that recommends.
ReplyDelete