Why do most of us choose to take the “blue pill”?
Socrates justified his breaking of man-made laws by claiming that he was obeying the laws of God and not of Man — suicide or murder by poisoning with hemlock was the result.
Plato, his student, spoke strongly against the weaknesses of democracy — unsurprising as fellow citizens had tried his teacher and found him guilty. Plato promulgated the four cardinal virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice. He had strong opinions on forms of government. He detailed the strengths and weaknesses of aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. He believed democracy always descended into tyranny — philosopher kings as leaders was his ideal model.
He showed humans as weak and easily misled by their misunderstanding of the real world, thereby justifying why the strengths of philosophers made them ideal leaders.
Not much has changed in two thousand four hundred years — we still fall for misdirection. But the difference is now we have unlimited sources to validate our decisions — should we choose to access same.
However distraction and conspiracy theories are far more exciting, the newspapers have used this for many years with page 3 girls and in recent years in the UK the behaviours of the rich and royals used to titillate and horrify while the world burns.
Bruce Hood who is currently Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, wrote an intreaguing book, “ Supersense: From Superstition to Religion — The Brain Science of Belief”. The book details our human weakness for supernatural beliefs — 90% of people in the USA believe in God and have religious affiliations and practices reinforcing this, he argues that this is a beneficial human trait which helps us make sense of the world.
“Superstitions are common. Many of us cross our fingers, knock on wood, step around black cats, and avoid walking under ladders. John McEnroe refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points. Wade Boggs insisted on eating a chicken dinner before every Boston Red Sox game. President Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary and continued the tradition on every subsequent election day.
Supernatural thinking includes loftier beliefs as well, such as the sentimental value we place on photos of loved ones, wedding rings, and teddy bears. It also includes spiritual beliefs and the hope for an afterlife. But in this modern, scientific age, why do we hold on to these behaviors and beliefs?
It turns out that belief in things beyond what is rational or natural is common to humans and appears very early in childhood. In fact, according to Hood, this “super sense” is something we’re born with to develop and is essential to the way we learn to understand the world. We couldn’t live without it!
Our minds are designed from the very start to think there are unseen patterns, forces, and essences inhabiting the world, and it is unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs, or the superstitious behaviors that accompany them, will be successful. These common beliefs and sacred values are essential in binding us together as a society because they help us to see ourselves connected to each other at a deeper level.”
The book concludes by suggesting a subtle benefit of supernatural thinking which may help to explain why it persists in our genetic makeup. He points out that it offers support for values which are considered sacred by a group, thus promoting group cohesion.
So we choose to take the “blue pill”.
In business it is no different, companies have vision, values and mission statements that are aimed at establishing employee cohesion with business objectives, which, hopefully will align them to better meet customer needs and increase shareholder value.
Many business leaders achieve superstar status and their employees believe and follow their directions unquestioningly, why, because group psychology makes it hard to deviate from the soft power the leader exhibits and we all want to be part of an “in-group”.
Rather like belief in quack remedies for Coronovirus, the leader can lead us astray and fail to achieve the business objectives as manifest by failure. McKinsey believes that, in 2027, 75% of the companies currently quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared.
I have found that compliance with irrational corporate beliefs is often reinforced by personal fear of being seen as different and going against accepted wisdom.
In the 1990s, I based part of my thesis on the book “Driving Fear out of the Workplace”, where authors Ryan and Osterrich made the undiscussable — discussable and confront the fears that permeate today’s organizations — so that they can become the high-trust, high-performance organizations of tomorrow.
In driving change in my career, the processes which constrained creative thinking in business proved true and helped me have confidence to break free from the “Vision, Values and Mission” falsehoods which were often deployed my weak managers in an alliterative anagram of “Vicious, Vindictive and Malicious” behaviour. This was generally to protect their roles with no accounting for the business objectives or customer needs.
Science provides us the tools to selectively believe supernatural things that socially is beneficial for collective human endeavour — be careful to choose wisely when presented with the choice of taking the red pill or the blue pill.
