Article archive / August 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 12. Source pages: 2.
A while back I was tagged to do a research survey about “clean data” by some IO graduate student. The tyranny of random selection notwithstanding, I had to google the term to complete the survey, warning the researcher in the comment section that I was ignorant about this term, in case it mattered to her.
However, searching “clean” data also pulled up “cleaning data off” of a computer. This was a lucky happenstance since I’d been dragging around two obsolete computers wondering how to remove the sensitive data before tossing them. Turns out that the gold standard for removing data is to physically destroy the hard drive.
I’d discovered long ago that there is no way to remove information off your computer that an expert can’t figure out how to recover. I even had a computer struck by lightening once and my tech guy just smiled in that smug way they have of letting you know who is superior, gave me my computer with every single byte of data back, and handed me a bill for $91.50.
I have a male around who enjoys doing physical feats for his female, presumably to prove his masculinity and display his impressive athleticism. So I was in luck. With a sledge- hammer, safety glasses, and an appreciative audience (me and our Brittany Spaniel) my male completely destroyed two hard drives.
The public must have had some inking of this also because most of them––76 percent––think the IRS is lying about their multiple hard drive failures. You don’t really need a review from the experts on lies, like Paul Eckman or Sean Lane, to know that the IRS is putting forth a whopper.
This alerts us to some interesting psychological principles.
Since we know from research that citizens willingly pay more taxes when they trust their governments, we can predict some unfortunate and invisible loss in tax revenues.
On the surface of it, one has to wonder if this is the best lie the IRS can come up with. But of more concern is the possibility that this unwillingness to be accountable about email communi- cations––that are clearly the public’s business and to which the public has a right––could be due to psychological superiority and self-deception. By the body language of some of those testifying before Congress, this looks likely. The IRS officials could teach a class on posture and facial expressions for portraying confidence, superiority, and disdain.
The officials’ behaviors also suggests strong group identification. Psychological science shows us that we humans are pitifully influenced by our group identification. We can’t help ourselves. We want to wear our team’s color, root for our ethnic group, work at a company we feel has it all together, ride our motorcycle with others who ride their motorcycles.
We have multiple biological mechanisms for favoring our identity groups. And oddly, most any group can do the trick for us. That’s how ingrained it is. But when it goes too far it can impair our decision-making.
Psychologists have found that injustice by a group can actually lead those most strongly identified with that group to increase, rather than decrease, their group support.
So violations of procedural justice do not automatically lead to correction, sometimes violations lead to just the opposite.
And often we are completely unaware– unconscious–of these injustices due to self-deception.
This is one of the reasons power always corrupts. We should be on the lookout, both in ourselves and in others, for this phenomenon, which contributes directly to the corrupting influence of collective power.
“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud,” said John Adams, “it is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.”
Our science tells us to put in checks and balances, maintain open, flexible boundaries, and stay alert to our own and others’ self-deception. It tells us to help our leaders strive toward this type of psychological wisdom.
And if they can’t, we should remind our leaders to wear their safety glasses during their accidental hard drive failures.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.