A recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research from the University of Chicago Press (1) demonstrates that people hold management policies of churches and pharmaceutical companies to a higher standard. For example, outsourcing of priestly activities by the church to become more efficient or actions to maximize shareholder value by pharmaceutical companies such as hiking the price of well known drugs meet with sharp disapproval of the public, even though such actions are routinely taken by companies in most other industries without any objections or fanfare. So, public, in general, will vote to control the prices of drugs without knowing that such actions will slowly erode the ability of the industry to bring new products to market.
This shows that perceptions and biases are important factors that generate public opinion. Democratic outcomes, thus, are not objective – they are but a reflection of the existing belief systems. Challenging such belief systems, generally, is not a winning formula as humans have shown little ability to change their biases in the presence of data that conflict with belief systems. In many cases, conflicting data reinforces false beliefs. Equally important is the need and desire to conform. If an individual knows that a higher share of the society believes in something, it is more likely that she will conform rather than object.
Education systems around the world has to reform significantly. The best part of education is learning to challenge status-quo and to use logic to study belief systems. Without such skills, the next generation will remain prisoners to arbitrary beliefs perpetuated by the generations before them.
1. From the Commercial to the Communal: Reframing Taboo Trade-offs in Religious and Pharmaceutical Marketing. A. Peter McGraw, Janet A. Schwartz, Philip E. Tetlock
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