‘Consciousness is nature’s nightmare.’ –Cioran
We are swimming in a sea of good advice. Yet we often refuse to take it, and end up drowning. In a series of clever experiments described in her new book Sidetracked Harvard social scientist, Francesca Gino has found that despite evidence from hundreds of studies over the past two decades showing our decisions greatly benefit from another pair of eyes, we routinely sabotage ourselves by refusing to take advice.
The question is why?
In one study, Gino and her colleagues discovered that making people feel powerful—even temporarily—[…] significantly reduced their willingness to use advice. […]
In another experiment, [they] made one group of people feel angry. […] Others were induced to feel gratitude. […] The gracious bunch proved three times more likely than the mad men and women to accept advice.
