60 is old.

I turned 60 last week and I am still trying to process it.  The average life expectancy in 2019 was 78.8 years.  Hmm.  Suddenly that doesn't seem so far away.

As if that isn't discouraging enough, the average age of Americans in 2020 is 45.  The median age is 40.  And the mode is 30. 

So clearly 60 is old, but am I?  Cue the denial.  That's what people do when they hold two conflicting points of view which they need to reconcile.  To eliminate their discomfort they discount one point or the other.

Option one is of course to accept the truth that 60 is old and so am I. 

Option two however is to deny that 60 is old since I can't possibly be old.  That's why people run around saying silly things like "60 is the new 50."  What does that even mean? 

The truth hurts.  Literally.  I used to swim two hours a day, five days a week.  Now I can only manage 45 minutes twice a week -  if I use my foam roller faithfully at night.  So I find myself thinking "If you think 60 isn't old, you must not be very active." 

Which brings me back to where I started.  60 is old.  And if you aren't thinking about your legacy instead of spouting silly denials then you need to get real.   

How do you want to be remembered?

Amazon workers are rallying over high injury rates. Does it matter to consumers?

I wasn't all that surprised that Amazon was number one on the "The Best-Managed Companies of 2019" list that The Wall Street Journal published recently.

But I did think to myself - I bet the result would be different if they had crowd sourced their research.  And in fact, the report acknowledges that Amazon rates "below average on measures of social responsibility." (Cutter, 2019)

I also wondered about the four star rating in "Employee Engagement & Development."  I'm sure the employees at Whole Foods who just lost their healthcare might have a few things to say about that.  And now apparently there are safety issues in Amazon warehouses.  An advocacy group says injuries are three times higher than they are in similar warehouses.

Coincidentally the warehouse that is planning the rally has just handed out 6,000 Thanksgiving meals, part of the $250,000 Amazon has donated to food banks in 2019. (SiLive, 2019)

Talk about cognitive dissonance.  How do people process all that information?  Will they use short cuts?  Which ones?  Which issues resonate the most?  The positive or the negative?  What about with other companies?  Have you ever canceled a brand due to a clash of values?  Or adopted one?

Cutter, C. (2019, November 22)  The Best-Managed Companies of 2019.  wsj.com.  Retrieved November 27, 2019, from

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-managed-companies-of-2019and-how-they-got-that-way-11574437229

SiLive (2019, Monday November 25)  Amazon Donates Dinners While Employees Protest Safety Issues.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved November 27, 2019, from

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/343821/amazon-donates-dinners-while-employees-protest-saf.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=116246&hashid=ybq2buULrntyGS6NfbELk0afrrI

If you want to control the narrative, you need to create content.

First impressions matter.  And they tend to stick.  In fact, research shows that we are more likely to remember and believe the first statement we hear about any particular subject.  It's called the primacy effect, and it's based on Hermann Ebbinghaus' "forgetting curve" developed in 1885.  (Murre, J. & Dros, J., 2015)

We also know that once a first impression has been formed it is very difficult to alter it as we tend to ignore information that contradicts it.  That is because we are trying to avoid that uncomfortable feeling we get when we have to deal with conflicting beliefs.  We call that "cognitive dissonance."

It's so uncomfortable that we choose to ignore conflicting evidence, and stick with our original belief, even if the argument against it is a strong one.

That's why it is so important to be the first to raise a subject.  The majority of the people will believe what you say.  But it also means that others will not be able to simply take a different stance, but must instead try to convince people to change their minds.  And as noted, that is a daunting task.

President Trump understands this well.  We should be discussing the fact that the deficit is over a trillion dollars for the second year in a row, instead we are wasting our time discussing his latest racist remarks.  Sigh.

The only person who seems to be getting this is AOC.  In her tweets she has been raising important issues like income inequality and forcing others to get back to topics that matter.  Kudos to her. 

Now I just wish the mainstream media would get a clue.  Sure it's good for ratings and circulation increases to make people angry and scared.  But it's not good for this country.  It's time to step up.

Murre, J. & Dros, J. (2015, July 6)  Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve.  plos.org.  Retrieved July 31, 2019, from  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120644

If you want people to believe you - you must speak first.

Research tells us that we tend to believe the first thing that we hear about a subject, whether or not it is true.  It's part of the primacy effect. 

Then, once we believe something, we use selective perception to hear only new information that supports our beliefs, while blocking out additional information that does not. 

We do this to deal with the upset, known as cognitive dissonance, that occurs when we have a conflict between what we believe to be true and new information. 

Since cognitive dissonance creates such an uncomfortable feeling, we opt instead for denial.  How could something be true when it makes us feel bad?  Better to just ignore it and pretend. ( McLeod, 2014)

It makes perfect sense, but it does provide a significant challenge for people trying to change perceptions.

Consider Paul McCartney, who on October 22, 1969 appeared on the BBC to refute three years of rumors about his death.  He did so by paraphrasing a comment made by Mark Twain in 1897 when he faced a similar situation, saying: "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." 

Sadly, not everyone believed him. (Early, 2017)

McLeod, S. (2014) Cognitive Dissonance simplypsychology.org.  Retrieved January 17, 2018, from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html

Early, C. (2017, May 12) October 22, 1969: Beatle Paul McCartney denies rumours of his own death. bt.com  Retrieved January 17, 2018, from

http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/october-22-1969-mccartney-speaks-out-about-the-paul-is-dead-rumours-11364011642388