Collective Illusions: Conformity; Complicity and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions.

• Author: Brownstein, Howard Brod
• Position: BOARDBOOK: Boardroom Reads

Books currently being recommended for corporate board members are typically about emerging governance issues like ESG and DEI, and the board member's bookshelf is usually filled with deeper dives into topics like risk management and M&A. Rarely does a book come along that, while intended for general readership, is also of particular interest for board members.

Such a book is Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions by Todd Rose (Hachette, 2022). Rose, a trained neuroscientist and former faculty member at Harvard Graduate School of Education, provides a detailed and Interesting analysis of the science behind how normal human beings are affected by various types of biases and blind spots, which lead to bad decisions. From an evolutionary viewpoint, this raises the question of why humans developed in this way. The answer seems to lie in a larger social need being met, one of fitting in with the group, following what other people think or do in order to avoid being the exception or suffer the embarrassment of being wrong.

Effective board governance benefits from board members being healthily skeptical and establishing a board culture that does not squelch or disfavor differing viewpoints or challenging questions. Rose points out that, in society, we learn not to be an exception from the herd, not to question "authority" and to implicitly trust that whatever everyone else is doing must be OK. Therefore, it is not hard to envision a board dynamic that encourages a "go along to get along" mentality, which can lead to overlooking potentially important facts and avoiding further inquiry.

The terms that Rose uses for the forms of bias he describes (conformity bias, copycat trap, etc.) have appeared elsewhere. However, his book cites extensive and varied research that shows repeatedly how we disregard our personal feelings about a topic in favor of how we believe others feel. Examples include research that asked people how they felt about certain issues, followed by how they believed others felt. Invariably, the arithmetic did not line up: If as many people really...