Are we hard wired to be followers?

There’s some irony in the fact that some of the most interesting news on TV these days is only on early Sunday morning, far earlier than I normally am voluntarily conscious on a weekend -CBS’ Sunday Morning starts at 7am in my neck of the woods.  I was however, glad I caught it this week as there was an interesting story on how brain scans show that when we are given advice by an ‘expert’ such as  TV pundit, our decision making centers shut down.  A similar story citing the same study is online at Wired.com. This explains a few things about the economy and politics, but only starts more questions about why the heck we’re wired this way.  And what do we do about it?

I’m sure I’m not the only one that would prefer to keep any and all experts in the advisory capacity rather than delegate my decisions. But I have to acknowledge that I often find myself wanting advice that provides a clear road map rather than just concepts on how to accomplish something. I’ve noticed others yearning for this as well so  I’m guessing the two are related. That makes it all the more important to be able to integrate advice without blindly following.

Years ago I went to a David Copperfield performance in a small town. My friend and I got there early and saw three or four people approached by staff and led away, only to see them return to their seats before the performance started.  Sure enough, these were the ‘random’ people brought up on stage for various magic tricks.  Even though I didn’t know exactly what had happened backstage, I wasn’t nearly as in awe as I would have been otherwise.  I already knew that something had happened to make the magic possible. Just a little bit of forewarning can dispell much of the illusion.  So maybe if we all observe ourselves observing the experts and the pundits some of that intellectual paralysis the scientists observed will also begin to dissipate.  I wonder what different choices we all might make?

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