Financiers use rituals & symbols to reinforce their social ties and worldview and share a creation myth

See Anthro-Vision’ Review: How to Take the Blinders Off by Tunku Varadarajan of The WSJ.

He reviews the book Anthro-Vision: A New Way To See In Business And Life by Gillian Tett. Excerpts:   

"Ms. Tett’s doctoral research, conducted in 1990 in a remote valley in Soviet-era Tajikistan, had focused on Tajik wedding rituals, as well as on the friction between Communism and Islam in that erstwhile backwater of the U.S.S.R. Fifteen years later, at a European Securitization Forum in Nice, France, she observed that the assembled financiers—“ranks of chino- and pastel-shirt-clad men”—were using rituals and symbols to “reinforce their social ties and worldview.” In Tajikistan, this bonding had occurred with a complex cycle of wedding ceremonies, dancing and gifts of embroidered cushions. In Nice, the bankers were swapping business cards, rounds of alcohol and jokes while engaging in “communal golf tours” and watching PowerPoint presentations.  

In both cases, Ms. Tett writes, the rituals and symbols were part of a “shared cognitive map,” one designed by biases and assumptions held in common. For all their globe-trotting and polyglot panache, the financiers were no less insular than Tajik matrons. They were, she says, a close-knit tribe “with little external scrutiny” who “could not see whether their creations were spinning out of control”—which they were, as the financial collapse of 2008 was to confirm. Because they shared such a strong “creation myth” about the benefits of novel instruments—such as collateralized debt obligations and other financial confections that brought markets crashing down—they needed someone in their midst who could see the “blind spots” they could not see for themselves."

Are false beliefs necessary for people’s well-being?

There is a new book out called "USEFUL DELUSIONS: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain" by Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler.  Click here to read the review from The New York Times.

"Should we always advocate for truth? History tells us false beliefs can be dangerous, leading to genocide, racism and attacks on democracy. However, they can also bring harmony and help us thrive. Consider the health benefits of placebos or the comfort of religion. It is not the veracity, but the consequence, of a belief that makes it good or bad, Vedantam and Mesler argue. “Life, like evolution and natural selection, ultimately doesn’t care about what’s true. It cares about what works.” And if you believe in science you must acknowledge the overwhelming evidence that false beliefs are necessary for people’s well-being, as they often help reduce anxiety and increase motivation. “You can’t go around thinking of yourself as a breathing piece of defecating meat. It gets in the way of happy hour.”

Accepting that people’s beliefs depend less on evidence than on their hopes, emotions and tribal affiliations is vital for addressing global threats such as climate change. Persuading people to act requires us to go along with how the brain works, rather than working against it. Fighting irrational beliefs with numbers and graphs alone is ineffective. Instead, we must fulfill people’s desires and need for belonging. True to their thesis, Vedantam and Mesler pepper hard data with compelling stories to make their case. Vedantam’s empathy and intuitive understanding of human nature, which shine on his popular “Hidden Brain” podcast, come through in “Useful Delusions.”"