Counterintuition Revisited

The counter-intuitive has, counter-intuitively, become the conventional wisdom.

“For pundits, Freakonomists, and Malcolm Gladwell, following the crowd meant going against the grain,” writes New York Magazine’s Alex Pareene in the Encyclopedia of Counter-Intuitive Thought (hat tip: Marginal Revolution). He describes dozens of examples from the past decade, including these gems:

• Amateurs are better than experts.
• Boys are the biggest victims of sex discrimination.
• Being smart doesn’t help you get ahead.
• Consumption isn’t just good for the economy, it’s good for the soul.
• Critically acclaimed authors are terrible.
• Exercise is bad for you.
• Giving your product away is better business than selling it.
• Government transparency is bad.
• Plagiarism isn’t a big deal.
• Radiohead isn’t a good band.

“In the aughts, the shocking hidden side of everything became the only side of anything worthy of magazine covers and book deals,” says Pareene. Unconventional wisdom possesses such salience that one of his prime examples of counterintuitive thought is

Conventional wisdom is right.
2001, Magazine.
While you may have read (hundreds of times in the very magazine this piece was being written in) that the conventional wisdom is wrong, it is actually usually right. It is “a broad agreement of elite opinion” and “a time-tested means of filtering out the bunk.” Attacks on the C.W. are vestiges of the New Left’s distrust of authority, and the consensus of wise, mainstream figures is reliable.
FRANKLIN FOER, “IN DEFENSE OF THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: WHY WHAT EVERYONE THINKS IS USUALLY RIGHT,” THE NEW REPUBLIC, MARCH 19.

I previously explored the psychological processes that make counterintuition so appealing, relative to the intuitive and mundane. New, novel, and challenging information catches our attention and sticks in our memory. We seem to be wired to pay attention to what surprises us, and to seek out and remember novel information to prevent further surprises.

Of course, what that essay implied was that this can be used against us. Last week, I blogged about an article in which Jason Hanna recounts self-help warning signs from psychology professor John C. Norcross, which include, “People who reject conventional knowledge and instead imply a revolutionary secret. ‘It's marketing, essentially,’ says Norcross.” Indeed, when talking about “secrets,” The Secret exemplifies this trend. As some commentators (and even some of the “teachers” featured in The Secret) point out, there was nothing new (or particularly secret) about The Secret. By packaging it as a great revelation of hidden wisdom, author/producer Rhonda Byrne helped sell her get-rich-quick scheme to the masses.

But while I agree for the most part with Norcross, I don’t know that we can simply dismiss those who dismiss the conventional wisdom. Even if this is just marketing, it may be necessary in order to get important ideas into the marketplace. Alex Pareene’s “Encyclopedia” implies that being counterintuitive isn’t a nice plus--it may now be the cost of entry into the debate. Ezra Klein recently observed this, as well:

Speaking of bizarrely counterintuitive articles, and with the ostentatious contrarianism of Super Freakonomics still on everybody's mind, it's worth saying that there's nothing contrarian about being contrarian in elite intellectual circles. Indeed, the really contrarian move would be to try to make your way as a thinker without taking aim at somebody's sacred cows, or at least making it seem like you're taking aim at somebody's sacred cows. There's a reason the book "Everything You Know Is Wrong" is not titled "Most of The Things You Know Are Right."

. . .

The conceit behind counterintuitive articles is that the author is taking an intellectual risk. But that ceases to be true when counterintuitive articles become the norm. At that point, the author is just trying to be relevant.

In my first piece about the appeal of counterintuition, I mentioned Dan and Chip Heath’s idea (taken from Made to Stick) about common sense: “When messages sound like common sense, they float gently in one ear and out the other. And why shouldn't they? If I already intuitively 'get' what you're trying to tell me, why should I obsess about remembering it?” To Klein’s point, in order to be relevant, one must present the appearance of new, novel, challenging, or risky positions.

Counterintuition carries more weight, psychologically, than the material may merit. Counterintuitive, anti-conventional-wisdom appeals may be marketing gimmicks. Some highly dubious material will be dressed up as a great secret in order to boost sales. At the same time, having a counterintuitive appeal may be a necessary precondition to getting noticed at all in a competitive marketplace of ideas. Which means some rather conventional wisdom still prevails: Buyer beware. The onus is still on all of us to judge new ideas, new advice, and new information not on counter-cultural appeal, but on their merit.

Monday, December 14, 2009