Uninformative Experience
Michael Webster summarizes a key point from the book "Mistakes were made, but not by me":
"The more costly a decision, in terms of time, money, and inconvenience, and the more irrevocable its consequences, the greater the dissonance and the greater need to reduce it by overemphasizing the good things about the choice made."
If you are looking to purchase a franchise, then don’t look to the existing franchisees for information – if they are doing poorly, their brains will engage in self-deception trying to convince you of how good their choice was. You should get in touch with other individual making the same pre-purchase decision – individuals who have not been to discovery day or who have been in contact with the franchisor.
Perhaps this is why the young don’t listen much to the old.
I really wonder if societies that don;t have as high self esteem and don't need to be consistent as much have this same bias.
Very interesting idea, Robin.
While Jeb's cautionary observation about what experience really teaches is important, and something I am sure most readers of this blog would agree with, after reading Robin's link I wondered if 25 years ago I was as receptive to the dissonance message. (If my own future self couldn't convince my present self, then Robin is probably on to something.)
More professional readers should also read Eddie Harmon-Jones and Judson Mills "Cognitive Dissonance", which was published in 1999. The range of experiments was quite enlightening, at least for me.