Authority-Misinfluence Tendency into the mischief of causing McDonnell Douglas

to overreact by using what was obviously too dangerous a test method. By now the

course of action had been decided, so Inconsistency- Avoidance Tendency helped

preserve the near- idiotic plan. When all the old people got to the dark hangar,

with its high airline cabin and concrete floor, the situation must have made

McDonnell Douglas employees very queasy, but they saw other employees and

supervisors not objecting. Social-Proof Tendency, therefore, swamped the

queasiness. And this allowed continued action as planned, a continuation that

was aided by more Authority- Misinfluence Tendency. Then came the disaster of

the morning test with its failure, plus serious injuries. McDonnell Douglas

ignored the strong disconfirming evidence from the failure of the first test

because confirmation bias, aided by the trig- gering of strong

Deprival-Superreaction Tendency, favored maintaining the original plan.

McDonnell Douglas’ Deprival-Superreaction Tendency was now like that which

causes a gambler, bent on getting even after a huge loss, to make his final big

bet. After all, McDonnell Douglas was going to lose a lot if it didn’t pass its

test as scheduled. More psychology-based explanation can probably be made, but

the foregoing discussion is complete enough to demonstrate the utility of my

system when used in a checklist mode.

 

My third question is also compound: In the practical world, what good is the

thought system laid out in this list of tendencies? Isn’t practical benefit

prevented because these psychological tendencies are so thoroughly programmed

into the human mind by broad evolution [the combination of genetic and cultural

evolution] that we can’t get rid of them?