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The Power of Assumptions

A few weeks ago I was in some leadership classes at work that were taught by an PhD Industrial Psychologist. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. He was very knowledgeable about what is going on inside the brain during different actions and thought processes. One example was that the act of throwing a ball to someone on the move (i.e. playing catch) uses the same pathways in your brain that all delayed gratification decisions do. You are holding the ball while visualizing where the ball and person will meet at a point in the future. This is why it is very important to play arch with your kids. It trains their brains to use these pathways and help them develop the skills necessary to delay gratification.

How does this relate to audio? Another thing he takes about was the power of assumptions. When we believe/assume that something is true the way our brain reacts to it chemically and electrically is identical rather it is in fact true or not. The secondary effect that happens is that we then become supremely aware of every little thing that supports our assumption and we blindly ignor anything contradictory. He said that this is why it is so difficult to get someone to change their opinion of you. His point was that we needed to be aware of this involuntary response and be willing to ask ourselves if there was any other way to look at a given situation.

It made me think about how this directly relates to audio. What we assume can actually have a stronger impact our experience than the objective facts. For example, if I assume that solid state amplifiers are inferior it will be extremely difficult for me to have a positive experience with one because my brain will be working overtime to find a way to support my assumption. It might take hearing a solid state amplifier while believing it to be a tube amplifier to force my to be objective and at least consider that a solid state amplifier might sound great.
mceljo
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,842 posts
 
Not only are your ears involved, but so is your wallet. Pride of ownership goes a long way to blinding one to the obvious: that your choice wasn't the best.

Add to that, the unwillingness to spend more to get more, albeit incrementally.

Some of these debates here are like trying to justify to your parents the hows and whys of your spending habits. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
I was doing some internet reading on Friday and came across two Interesting studies.

One was a depression drug study where they proved that the brain reacted in the same areas and in the same way with the drug and placebo. In fact, the prefrontal cortex was actually more active with the placebo. There was more to the study, but it was interesting that the sime belief in the placebo was enough to physically alter the brain activity.

The other was a sleep study where the researchers told people randomly that they had achieved more or less rem sleep compared to the average during a sleep study where they pretended to measure the rem sleep. They also asked each perso. How they felt they slept. Then they tested their cognitive ability and found that those who were told that they slept well scored higher even when they felt otherwise. The brain is a powerful force, but it only takes a little belief in something to trick it.

Wine will generally score higher in a taste test if it is reported to cost more.

Like it or not, our expectations and preconceived notions have a direct impact on how we experience things. Audio is not excluded. Sound goes from our ears and is interpreted in our brains. I would love to know the order of magnitude relative to the measurable difference in audio gear. I suspect the "placebo floor" is quite high...
zd542
5,339 posts
 
What's going on when a piece of audio equipment gets rave reviews and people I know tell me how good it is, and when I go listen to it having high expectations, it sounds like crap?
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,842 posts
 
How many times have rooms at audio shows been the focus of blame when the reviews touted otherwise?

It's now conventional wisdom to blame the room but I seriously doubt that most of the rooms that fared poorly at audio shows had otherwise great equipment in them. We all want to believe things despite evidence to the contrary.

Granted, one piece of equipment can make or break the chain as I've heard the best digital ever from MSB a few years ago to only wonder what the hell happened the year after. It was partnered with different speakers.

Great gear combined with great gear will usually guarantee great results but one component can't do it on it's own despite the rave reviews. That highly touted component thus becomes the placebo. Quite the turn of events, eh?

All the best,
Nonoise
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
Placebo doesn't eliminate the possibility of objective factual opinions. I don't think it is as much a factor on equipment like speakers and amplifiers where the differences can be significant, but for things like cables, isolation devices, etc., where the differences are often small the impact can easily become more real.
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