Anyway, the thing that I liked the most about this concept is that it seems like our whole idea of rationality need not always lead to the best results. Tim explains how the African-American population in the USA are not only affected by taste-based discrimination which is equivalent to bigotry but also by discrimination that is born out of rationality. I particularly like the study he outlines by which this can be proven - applicants grouped under two color categories looking for jobs. Of course, I'm not going to re-write his work here but the idea is that when a group of people behave in a particular way, we tend to make judgements that look rational but that in turn makes the group of people exactly continue the behaviour that is detrimental to them. This idea probably struck a chord with me immediately as I look back at work and how people I manage behave or how I behave when managing people at work. Rationality at work is indeed branded as the cornerstone that make work environments civilized. However, after reading about statistical discrimination, I'm wondering whether looking at data and drawing conclusions to resolve problems like employee engagement, attrition, etc. will need to be looked at from a different angle.
Apart from the above, the other thing that really got me thinking was the term that Tim has spoken about in this book around the same topic of rational racism - 'acting white'. He describes how African-American kids who study hard or try to make it big in life are branded as 'acting white' by peers, friends and family. This indeed discourages many of them from trying in the fear of being disowned by their own. This particular idea led immediately to me thinking about a similar term I have heard growing up in quite a patriarchal society - 'acting boyish'. Girls who tried to be independent, make their own decisions, hung out with friends often were often called 'tomboyish'. I was one of them so may be it immediately came back to me. Contrary to the effect that Tim describes in his book, I wasn't discouraged but I wonder how many girls did not even venture in this direction for fear of being branded 'tomboyish'. Another similar term I thought of was 'Acting like Peter and Mary'. I'm sure many of you(if not most) will have heard this if you've grown up in India and have tried to master the English language. For those of you who don't know what this term means - it meant that those of us who tried to communicate in English were mocked as being Peter or Mary depending on what sex one belonged to. Peter and Mary were considered to be the quintessential representation of an English population. This had exactly the same effect as 'acting white' especially when I see the number of people around me who have to speak in English to make a good career but are embarrassed to try talking this language in public because they will be mocked by their peers. Wonder if the discovery of this concept will help us solve the problem of getting people to speak and write better English for the sake of their careers.
This kind of thinking which is triggered by behavioural economics is exactly the reason why I'm fascinated by this subject. May be this fascination of mine is one of the dots that I'd connect to when I look back 10 years from now. Connecting the dots - Steve Jobs' words of wisdom.
Picture from: http://timharford.com/books/logicoflife/
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