She is married to a clown,

And the grossness of his nature Drags her down.’”

 

The jury disbelieved the woman’s testimony. They easily recognized the strong

misinfluence of love on her cognition. And we now often see even stronger

misinfluence from love as tearful mothers, with heartfelt conviction, declare

before TV cameras the innocence of their obviously guilty sons.

 

People disagree about how much blindness should accompany the association called

love. In Poor Richard’s Almanack Franklin counseled: “Keep your eyes wide open

before marriage and half shut thereafter.” Perhaps this “eyes-half-shut”

solution is about right, but I favor a tougher prescription: “See it like it is

and love anyway.”

 

Hating and disliking also cause miscalculation triggered by mere association. In

business, I commonly see people underappraise both the competency and morals of

competitors they dislike. This is a dangerous practice, usually disguised

because it occurs on a subconscious basis.

 

Another common bad effect from the mere association of a person and a hated

outcome is displayed in “Persian Messenger Syndrome.” Ancient Persians actually

killed some messengers whose sole fault was that they brought home truthful bad

news, say, of a battle lost. It was actually safer for the messenger to run away

and hide, instead of doing his job as a wiser boss would have wanted it done.