When a man’s steps are consecutively taken toward disaster, with each step being

very small, the brain’s Contrast-Misreaction Tendency will often let the man go

too far toward disaster to be able to avoid it. This happens because each step

presents so small a contrast from his present position.

 

A bridge-playing pal of mine once told me that a frog tossed into very hot water

would jump out, but that the same frog would end up dying if placed in

room-temperature water that was later heated at a very slow rate. My few shreds

of physiological knowledge make me doubt this account. But no matter because

many businesses die in just the manner claimed by my friend for the frog.

Cognition, misled by tiny changes involving low contrast, will often miss a

trend that is destiny.

 

One of Ben Franklin’s best-remembered and most useful aphorisms is “A small leak

will sink a great ship.” The utility of the aphorism is large precisely because

the brain so often misses the functional equivalent of a small leak in a great

ship.

 

Seventeen: Stress-Influence Tendency

 

Everyone recognizes that sudden stress, for instance from a threat, will cause a

rush of adrenaline in the human body, prompting faster and more extreme

reaction. And everyone who has taken Psych 101 knows that stress makes

Social-Proof Tendency more powerful.