Premium Edition: How Our Brains Trick Us
Plus Apple moves into the streaming sports biz and Facebook is getting out of news
SUBSCRIBERS: Thanks again for supporting Remote Notes. You get the newsletter a day ahead of everyone, without ads. We have a busy newsletter this week. Apple is moving into the streaming sports arena. Facebook is getting out of the news business. And journalists - surprise, surprise, have a love-hate relationship with their own industry. We begin by learning from a one-time TV news producer who has made it his mission to study human behavior.
THE LEDE
Graeme Newell started his professional career consulting for broadcasters. In the 19902-2010s, Graeme (with whom I worked during that time) would go into TV stations and teach them about how social media could further their mission. Recently, he has done a deep dive into behavioral sciences, and the results have been fascinating. Graeme posts short, easy-to-understand videos about given types of behaviors we engage in, and explains why in easy to understand terms.
Graeme Newell (Provided this picture)
You used to run more of a conventional and social media consultancy. That was about 10 years ago. Since then, you seem to have reinvented yourself as a “Behavioral Finance Speaker.” What changed?
My research company had been doing traditional studies such as focus groups and written surveys. Unfortunately we were getting lackluster results. To up our game, we started doing neuroscience research, putting people in brain scanners and asking them questions. It was amazing to discover that what people told us and what they were actually feeling were often diametrically opposed.
We also discovered the most volatile topic of all - money. When we even brought up the subject of finances, we would watch people’s brains light up like a Christmas tree. This whet my appetite for behavioral finance. These days I help people recognize the situations when they’re most likely to make bad money choices and how to get back on track.
What most people don’t realize is that 85% of our decision-making process is completely subconscious. Our decision-making process looks something like this: our subconscious brain decides something, then our conscious brain looks for confirmation of what we already believe. It feels like a perfectly rational decision, but nothing could be further from the truth.
What interests you about behavioral science? What has surprised you the most?
Leaders around the world are finally figuring out that just telling people what’s best for them rarely brings about meaningful behavioral change. Brain science is now implementing amazingly effective little “nudges” that bring about powerfully effective changes. This includes things like getting people to take their medications properly, work more effectively on teams, and giving people the courage to start businesses.
One of my favorite nerdy pastimes is pointing out flawed logic in online debates. Am I just being pedantic, or do we need to be debating with the rules of logic?
Actually, brain science clearly shows that logic often has very little to do with decision-making. Most of us have this vision that we make deeply analytical choices based on reason. We actually make emotional choices and then try to dress them up with a few facts. The way to make better choices isn’t to improve our logic. The best path forward is to fully embrace emotional decision-making and design small nudges that bring about better outcomes.
I know this is a weird question: What’s your favorite logical fallacy?
My favorite cognitive bias is the “Dunning-Kruger effect.” Brain science shows that people who have the least skill also tend to be the most overconfident. The cruel outcome is that these people are not only terrible at something, but they’re also clueless that they actually stink. Think of arrogant, but clueless people such as Stephen Colbert in “The Colbert Report” and Cliff Clavin from the old “Cheers” sitcom. We love to hate these people.
The opposite is also true. People at the top of their game often suffer from the “imposter syndrome.” Super skilled people tend to underestimate their own abilities. They know so much that they “know what they don’t know.” This gives them the warped perception that they are less capable, when they are actually the most capable.
Cognitive dissonance is the logical fallacy I see the most. People can’t hold opposing facts without lashing out. Yet, two things can be true - your favorite politician may also do something problematic. Why do people have such a hard time with this?
This is called the “backfire effect.” When we’re presented with strong evidence that one of our opinions is incorrect, you might think we’d be glad to discover the error. But unfortunately, that’s not our brain’s default reaction. Brain science shows that a lot of the time we develop a strong inclination to double down on our mistaken premise.
Forming an entirely new opinion requires that our brain do a lot of extra work, and it really hates that. So our brain makes a last-ditch, hail-Mary attempt to salvage our out-of-date, incorrect belief. This is usually done by hyper-focusing on corroborating evidence and desperately looking for flaws in contradictory evidence.
Once again, this all comes back to the fact that we primarily make decisions that feel right in our gut. Most of us rarely take the time to fact check.
Is there a behavioral scientist, book, TED Talk, podcast, etc. you think our audience should check out?
I’d recommend the book “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. It’s a delightfully fun romp through our decision-making brain.
If you’d like to learn more about behavioral finance, check out Daniel Crosby’s book, “The Laws of Wealth.”
Anything you’d like to add?
If you’d like to learn more about how our brain makes decisions, you might want to stop by my website at 602communications.com. There you will find dozens and dozens of short videos that will help you use the latest brain science insights to avoid costly mistakes.
Here is one of Graeme’s posts. Easy to understand, but I always learn something new:
Thanks to Graeme Newell for sharing his fascinating insights into how we think. Definitely check out his site for more great information on this topic.
NEWS AND NOTES
JOURNALISTS ARE HESITANT ABOUT JOURNALISM: A Pew Research Center study of nearly 12,000 working journalists has found they are proud of what they do, but worried about the future. 77% would pursue a career in journalism again, but 72% used a negative word to describe the news industry (“struggling” and “chaos” topped the two although, knowing journalists, I suspect a high percentage of answers were unprintable). Journos admit that, for many, the job takes an emotional toll; 34% say the job is bad for their mental well-being.
MLS CUTS 10-YEAR DEAL WITH APPLE TV: For the first time, a major sport has cut an exclusive deal with an online-only channel. Major League Soccer (MLS) and Apple TV have announced a 10-year deal that will bring every MLS match to Apple TV, starting in 2023. Apple TV and MLS will announce the streaming service’s price in the coming months. You no longer need the Apple TV “hockey puck” device to get the service - it’s become its own channel, and is available on lots of services, including Xfinity, Samsung TVs, Roku, Amazon Fire and other platforms.
Last month, we wrote about how the NFL was starting its own OTT (Over The Top) channel (NFL+). Live sports coverage has become a hot commodity in the streaming world as a way of setting a channel apart and building publicity.
NBCU BOSS PRAISES SHORTER STREAMING WINDOWS: In the movie biz, a “window” is the time between when a movie hits the theaters and when it comes to video. That window used to be measured in months. Now, a movie can be released on home video the same day at it comes out at the theaters.
Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has made nearly $1 billion worldwide, and will hit Disney+ just 47 days after its theatrical debut. As NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said at a streaming conference: ““That was unheard-of three years ago ... Disney was the one saying, ‘We’re never changing the windows,’ right?”
15 years ago, on the pages of Lost Remote, I predicted the first billion-dollar opening weekend would come when a blockbuster movie was released in theaters and on all video platforms the same day. I stand by this.
LINKS AND LIKES
“FACEBOOK LOOKS READY TO DIVORCE THE NEWS INDUSTRY”: A really good article that presents a deep read into how Facebook is getting further from posts that contain links to news stories. Joshua Benton writes this one for NiemanLab. The gist: Facebook took a lot of heat for spreading false news in the run-up to the 2016 election, so it tweaked its algorithm to show fewer posts with links to news stories - legit or not.
The result? Facebook was once the number one driver of traffic to news sites; now, just one out of every 250 Facebook posts has an external link to a news site. When you think about what your feed used to look like, this is pretty remarkable. Out of 1,000 posts, just four have a news link? While that’s not my user experience, I believe the data. (I probably skew news because I follow so many news sites.) News has been one big headache for Mark Zuckerberg.
LISTENING TO: YouTube Channel Josh Turner Guitar. Josh Turner is a very talented musician who plays both solo and as a member of The Other Favorites. Primarily a guitarist, he went viral in 2012 with his solo cover of the Dire Straits classic “Sultans of Swing.” My favorite is his version of David Bowie’s “Starman,” on which he plays all the instruments, with the exception of strings.
Check out his work with his band, The Other Favorites, especially “The Levee.” (Thanks to Simon for turning me on to this cool act.)
PODCAST: “Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi” episode: “The Juneteenth Mixtape.” From the description:
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the author of How to Be an Antiracist, the book that spurred a nationwide conversation redefining what it means to be antiracist, and in this podcast, he guides listeners how they can identify and reject the racist systems hiding behind racial inequity and injustice.
In this episode, first released in 2021. several guests discussed how the new federal holiday impacted their lives. An excellent listen. (Apple, Spotify, Stitcher)
What are your favorite podcasts? What podcasts do you think deserve some love? Maybe it’s an obscure podcast that you just want people to try out. If you’re a podcast producer, feel free to have me plug one of yours. Hit the email button below and let me know which podcasts we should be listening to.
Thanks again for being a pioneering subscriber to Remote Notes. If you have any thoughts or ideas for future editions, or want to pitch an interview or podcast, please email me.
Another excellent edition, Stevie!