![]() ![]() The exercise of crafting them is a complete waste of time and talent if values statements are used for anything other than an exercise at a management off-site meeting.īut preach the values they do. The big problem is that for most organizations the values statement changes nothing in how they conduct their business. Why do people feel this way? First, the values statement in most organizations has morphed into something that management tries to use as a motivational tool instead of a roadmap for behavior. Employees read the statement, knowing that they are not followed, yet continue to delude themselves into believing that the organization’s management has the best of intentions. I believe that The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect is alive and well in everyday life and especially in the workplace.įrom the workplace perspective, my reasoning is that for many organizations, the published values statement has much the same “effect” on employees–especially when those espoused values are not practiced. I would tend to disagree with Crichton on this one. His point being that in ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. One area where I think Crichton got it wrong is that he believes it does not apply to other arenas in life. Crichton believes the only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia. Fact is they tell us what they want us to hear which, by the way, is totally independent of the biased reporting problem which is another story altogether. When it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is worth our time to read the newspaper or listen to a broadcast. This then is The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. You turn the page, and forget what you know.” “In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. His reasoning was that by using a famous name it would imply greater importance to the effect, than it would otherwise have.Īccording to Crichton, the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows: “You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. He called it by this name because he once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. According to Crichton, media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. “The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect” is the name given by Michael Crichton for a phenomenon that afflicts mass media–its unlimited, unearned credibility.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |