Sway - Branfman

 

In 2008, Ori and Rom Brafman reached the New York Times Bestseller list with “Sway, The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior” which runs from anecdote to anecdote describing human people making decisions that they think are perfectly informed by the facts, when in fact, they are perfectly informed by many other factors that sway their judgement, most of it they don’t even realize.  It’s no secret that first impressions deeply color what comes next.  It’s no secret that human’s have a emotional side that draws deeply from their intuition about things rather than their quantitative analysis of any given situation.  Nevertheless, it’s always fascinating to read these stories as it connects us to the fate of others.  As long as that’s understood, I have no trouble with this book.  Take the story of the Stradivarius on the subway.  In this encounter a world class concert violinist abandons the music hall and tuxedo (I don’t even know what a concert violinist would wear) in favor of street musicians clothing performing in a subway during rush hour.  Could anyone discern a quality performance rising above the noise of their daily lives?  Very few of the thousands passing by gave more than a nod...and a grand total of one person actually recognized who he was. Is this any different than driving to work in the morning with the sun in your eyes and failing to see that the light has changed from green to red?  There is no difference...running that red light was no more irrational than failing to pick out a world class performance while rushing to work through a crowded subway station. 

Compare and contrast that with the decision of a seasoned 747 pilot to abandon his safety checklist in order to save time and reputation. What could have possibly driven a man as seasoned and programmed as the computer sitting in front of you now, to disregard his own programming?

Very little about the human condition can be ascertained from the examples presented in this book other than, as worldly and self aware of our surroundings that we think we may be, human perception is actually very poor and significantly limited in scope.   Since we are resourced constrained we tend to take the first information that we assess as necessary for our survival and filter out the rest.  Which is why a first impression, will always have the biggest impact on us.  No matter where that first impression originates.  Once our brain does the filtering...it doesn’t want to go back and reclassified...that’s hard work.  Once we are swayed there is almost no turning back.

You could read all the neuro phycology books in the world and not come up with a better explanation for why it happens...why the irrational decisions shape our human existence.  Take skydiving for instance.  Unless you have a burning desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane I doubt anyone would be able to talk you into it.  Even when you’ve convinced yourself the odds are pretty good that you will survive the drop,  it’s not the odds that count.  No matter how safely you prepare, no matter how many facts you read about the safety of the sport, diving out the door of an airplane at 10,000 is not a natural act.  Plummeting through the wind at up to 200 mph is simply something that our human bodies have never considered at any time during evolutionary development.  Thus, only from the irrational, can we arrive at a decision to do so.

We cannot change our irrational side.  Nor should we.  Through stories, not science,  books like Sway give us a deeper understanding that our irrational side is real.  It’s our instincts that have kept us alive evolutionarily speaking for 10,000 years.  Therefore it’s not the irresistible pull of irrational behavior that gives us a story.  The real story is why can’t rational behavior win in the big the tug of war going on in our brain.  In small ways, understanding that which makes us human, helps us to recognize the times when we are inhuman, as with a corporate decision to lay-off 10,000 employees to balance the spreadsheet, or at a time when we need to invoke our inhuman side, like when being in command of a 747 jumbo jet and making a decision to take off in a dense fog.  We’ve got the ability to use both sides of our brain.  The trick is to decide which one it’s time to use.  “Sway” gives us examples of situations where we should at least consider both sides.

Jumping out of an airplane tests both sides of your brain to the max.  It requires a truly irrational decision to make a rational decision to jump.