Why Investors Think What They Think (Because It’s What Other Investors Think)
Courtesy of Henry Blodget at Clusterstock
More Michael Mauboussin… This time explaining the power of peer pressure to make you think stupid things.
(Specifically, and more alarmingly, the power of what other people think to actually make you PERCEIVE the world differently–even when the "reality" you are perceiving is obviously false.)
Aaron Task, TT: In his latest book, "Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition," Michael Mauboussin, describes the 8 common mistakes investors make.
In the accompanying video, we drill down on one particularly nettlesome problem that even the most sophisticated investors share with junior high students: The powerful influence of peer pressure.
Based on the work of renowned Psychologist Solomon Asch in the 1940s and 1950s, behavioral economists know social pressure can make a person say something they know to be false. A more recent version of the same experiments at Emory University’s fMRI lab reaffirmed the results and showed the group’s answers changed people’s perception right vs. wrong. Even those participants who remained independent had higher activity in the fear center of their brains when bucking the group’s conventional wisdom, Mauboussin notes.
In an world where "everyone" thinks they’re a contrarian investor, the implications are profound…
See Also: The 8 Boneheaded Mistakes Investors Make
