The Influential Mind Made Me Think #11: On How The Average Person Thinks To Be Above Average

I think part of me decided to study Cognitive and Decision Making Sciences because I wanted to be able to "hack" my own thought/emotion processes. After reading Malcolm Gladwell and Dan Ariely, I thought that being aware of different phenomena that we are susceptible to would be enough to be able to fight it. Now, after being almost done with my graduate studies, I reconsider. Yes, being aware may help, but in most cases it won't. It has been a bitter sweet journey. Learning about the mind and how we take decisions has been beautiful. We are amazingly complex bio-chemical machines. On the other hand, I think it is the first time in my life that knowledge does not give me control over a certain thing. A certain feeling of impotence is inevitable. Knowing about how the brain works does not mean I will be able to optimize it. In her book, "The Influential Mind", Tali Sharot, professor of cognitive neuroscience, proves that she is not immune to human biases as well.

Studies trying to correlate a given name to a child with his/her success in the future have been inconclusive. Some studies suggest that they do not correlate with a child's later success, while other studies suggest that they can predict several attributes. For example, research from the second group I mentioned have found out that girls with feminine names, such as Elizabeth, are more likely to study humanities. On the other hand, girls with more masculine names, such as Alexis, are more inclined to choose math. Regarding the other gender, boys with more feminine names, such as Morgan, are more likely to have behavioral problems. Finally, children with names traditionally given by underprivileged parents are treated differently than their siblings with posh-sounding names like Sebastian. Tali did not know to what degree a name really affects a person's like, but she did not want to take any chances. So, when giving birth to her first child, she decided to play it safe.

Tali and her partner had several requirements for the name. It had to be meaningful, sophisticated, easy to spell and pronounce, and would be fit for a president or even a rock-star (just in case, as she noted). They decided on Sophia. Afterwards, Tali's husband read the list of the 100 most popular baby names. To their surprise, Sophia was at the very top. It came to their surprise because they had always thought of themselves as unique with different thinking and an unusual perspective of the world. As Tali would put it: "We were blissfully unaware that billions of others around the globe shared our tastes, and that our strong sense of individuality might have been an illusion".

Pixabay image source.

"There are no exceptions to the rule that everyone thinks they're an exception to the rules".
~ Banksy, Wall and Piece

Back in 1997 people were buying more computers from IBM than from Apple. Only the artsy kids were buying their computers, and if Apple wanted to survive in the market, they needed to be adopted by the mainstream. Craig Tanimoto's advertising company was hired to address this problem. After a week of brainstorming, the best idea was implemented. Craig had put together black-and-white images of extraordinary people: Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. and at the top he had inserted the words "Think different" and the rainbow-colored Apple logo. The campaign was a huge success and the sales sky-rocketed. Nowadays, half of U.S. homes own an Apple product and ironically, the "Think different" campaign got it all started. To see the actual images used for the campaign, Google "Think different campaign", and go the the images section.

We want to be unique, yet trendy, but we also think of ourselves as less likely to be influenced than the next person. This is statistically impossible. We can't all be less susceptible than the average person. The reason we see ourselves as so unique is because influence and learning usually operate under the radar. We all want to be unique and the thought that we are product of other's preferences makes us uncomfortable. We seek individuality, but because of social learning, we often converge on what seems a "distinct" choice. The dilemma is that while we see ourselves as different, we learn views and preferences from the people around us very quickly. The music you listen to, the technology you use, or the baby names you choose might not be product of your independent decision making. In other words, it can be product of the influences that have affected you, or your experiences.

What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinions.

If you want to check out other thoughts that this awesome book has evoked, click on these past posts:

• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #1: Disinformation That The Information Era Has Created
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #2: The Power Of Language And Ideas
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #3: On The Facebook Scandal, Data Usage, And The Spreading Of Emotions
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #4: On The Irrationality of Phobias
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #5: On Agency And The Hardship Of Financial Decisions
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #6: On How Agency Is Deeply Rooted In Us
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #7: On The Pleasure And Pain Of Knowledge, And What We Choose To Learn
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #8: On How Stress Changes Our Perspectives
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #9: On How Stress Can Make You Avoid Possibly Fruitful Risks
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #10: On How To Overcome The Fear Of Failure And Take Risks

Best,

@capatazche