The challenge with consumers is that they aren’t just walking around as these mythical one-dimensional consumer-bots. Instead, they are walking around as thinking, feeling and ever-changing human beings. Also, lest you forget, YOU yourself are one of these (problematic) creatures (humans).
You may be aware we are fans of posing the deep philosophical questions here on Consumer Corner in an effort to better understand our own humanness and extend that to societal and consumer behaviors. Recall our deep dive into Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? and the Flashback to that same debate again 18 months later (spoiler alert: same result, but with fresh debate).
Well, we’re back at it with a brand new inquiry…this one borrowed from Sheldon Cooper instead of Lewis Carroll.
Why does everybody knowing something make it right?
The answer: It doesn’t. Just because everybody ‘knows something’ doesn’t make it right. In fact, you may (probably should) start to wonder who ‘everybody’ even is.
Evidence: Even when it comes to football in Texas (and that is a big deal!), in the end, everything is just math. Picture it — it’s football in Texas. (Or, it’s Young Sheldon and we’re watching Coach Cooper coach football in Texas.) We’re on the 12-yard line. Everybody knows you punt…but why does ‘everybody knowing something’ make it right? Coach Cooper is going with his son, Sheldon Cooper, in making a decision for his football team. If you are at all familiar with Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory or Young Sheldon, then you know Sheldon and football doesn’t make a ton of sense; however, it’s not really about the football…it’s about the math/stats.
Sheldon’s mother (aka Coach’s wife), ever supportive, is sitting next to an endearing individual (sarcasm) who is sharing his insight from the spectating bleachers in the form of, “What the hell? Punt!”. Her response, “Statistically, they’re better off going for it,” is responded to with, “Says who?” The conversation continues, but we’ll stop there. (You can watch the whole clip HERE.)
Have you ever stopped to consider…when ‘everybody knows you punt’, nobody ever stops and asks who ‘everybody’ is. It’s repeated multiple times by multiple people (the Coach himself, the Assistant Coach, Georgie Cooper, Sheldon’s older football-playing brother) that ‘everybody knows you punt’; yet, not once does anyone stop to consider how everybody knows, who everybody is, nor whether it is right in the first place (or at all).
If you think about it long enough, you may start to agree that a young Sheldon Cooper is actually arguing for Unfortunate truth #2 previously explored in Don’t Eat Random Mushrooms … if we are going to make data-driven decisions, then we can no longer do whatever we want, what feels right, what our gut says to do, or what ‘everybody knows you should do’. Instead, we may have to do things we might not necessarily want to do.
In short, everybody knowing something does not make it right. In fact, they (everybody) might not know it in the first place (whatever it is).
ConsumerCorner.2023.Letter.10
