Originally published: . Volume 12, No. 5. Source pages: 2.
by Julie Nelson We had to say goodbye to another of our great leaders/thinkers, Dr. Wayne Greenleaf, who changed the whole state by using the science of psychology. His memorial article (this issue) gives a sense of Wayne's monumental contributions via the Dept. of Education, hospitals, and correction facilities.
Wayne was an applied psychological scientist and understood that being a psychologist was much more than being a mental health technician. When I interviewed him in 2011, Wayne's advice to younger psychologists was, “Focus on psychology, not on your bag of tricks. You can use psychology as a set of principles to address the larger concerns in society.”
He echoed Ed Timmons, saying, "You ought to be able to pick a psychologist up by the ear and drop them in anywhere, and they make a significant contribution, by their comprehensive training and general principles.”
This vision of a psychologist as scientist-practitioner appears to be fading. We seem to be losing our collective knowledge about how to apply metacognitive thinking to address complex issues.
To solve their financial problems, the State Board wants to force new fees and red-tape on psychologists, while members of the state association had to petition their own Council for a chance to weigh in and discuss the state board's legislative power-grab.
Are we hedgehogs?
Social psychologist Phillip Tetlock found that scientists are vulnerable to what he termed hedgehog thinking. Hedgehogs are confident in their views, they “know one big thing,” and push determinedly to apply this idea. Hedgehogs dig in and pulling the dirt in on top of themselves. The deeper they dig the more they risk becoming trapped in their own ideas, uncovering more reasons why their initial view is “right.”
Tetlock points out the paradox that the media and the public prefer the confidence and simplicity of hedgehogs. He also notes that hedgehog’s “formulaic solutions to ill-defined problems” is a quality prized in scientists.
The trap for hedgehogs includes the Einsellung Effect, a name for the common human tendency to ignore new information that doesn’t fit with our initial idea. There is a long list of related cognitive biases: Kahneman’s WYSIATI (what you see is all there is), the availability heuristic, focusing and framing effects, illusion of validity, confirmation bias, and so on.
This explains why physicians ignore new information after they’ve made a diagnosis, why government agencies overlook new facts that contradict their current programs, and why even scientists, whose job it is to remain open to new data, adhere so strongly to their favorite theory and can’t see information that is right in front of their eyes.
The Effect causes a loss of three standard deviations in performance. We've found that when in the grip of the Einsellung Effect, International Chess Masters––who generally perform at five standard deviations above the mean––drop to the level of Class A players. National Masters drop to Class B. And average players drop to well below average.
If we translate this to organizational work teams or decision- making in social groups, the loss in performance is staggering.
Using an IQ type scale, we can predict a team that regularly would be able to perform at the IQ of 130, a very high performing team, can drop to 85. Or, a strong team at 115, can drop to 70.
Psychology produces a wealth of information for someone to apply to human problems, in the US coming to 3.6% of all scientific publications. Just in this one issue of the Times, we covered a wonderful array of research from Louisiana scientists.
So, as applied psychologists, we are uniquely trained and positioned to apply this wealth of knowledge, to produce innovations that change society for the better, just like Dr. Wayne Greenleaf.
We should try to be like Wayne––definitely not a hedgehog.
[Julie Nelson is a licensed psychologist, journalist, consultant, and publisher of the Times. She also holds other positions in the community. However, her opinions here are those of her own, and do not represent any group or association. She and the Times receive no compensation other than paid advertising. Email her at drj@drjulienelson.com, ––she welcomes feedback.]
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.