by david allan van nostrand | Jan 26, 2017 | Human Behavior, Organizational Behavior
As humans, we accept as truth the things we believe and reject the things we don’t. Most of us call this wishful thinking. Psychology Today calls it the direct influence of desire on beliefs. As a result, we are basing many of our decisions on interpretations instead...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 19, 2017 | Human Behavior
Whether we call them adages, aphorisms, or proverbs, they are old and well-known sayings commonly held to be true and often given as advice. QUICK QUIZ: Ask yourself if you agree with each of these sayings (Yes/No). Birds of a feather flock together. Opposites...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 12, 2017 | Marketing, Research, Surveys, Voodoo Statistics
If I told you results from my survey said 63.5% of new car buyers want more cupholders and 36.8% want black seats, you might believe me, especially if I showed you a serious-looking report, or better yet, a dynamic slide presentation. If I admitted my study didn’t...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 5, 2017 | Big Data, Voodoo Statistics
Only recently popularized, Big Data has been around for a long time. It has been nearly 50 years since some exceptional Stanford students developed a sophisticated statistical package to analyze huge data sets on mainframes. Their idea was to use this very powerful...
