Why can we all look at the same statistics or watch the same game and come to polar opposite opinions on who was the better team or who is the best batsmen?
Opinions about the current Australian batting line-up are a great example of this.
Everyone is looking at the same stats on these players, they are published for all to see and yet some can pull out Shane Watson’s stats and say he is rubbish and others can look at the stats and say he is great.
Both can’t be right. Just read the comments on The Roar articles to see the amount of stats bandied about for proof of this.
While it has long been said you can make stats say whatever you want, the real question is why do we do this?
One reason, as outlined by Michael Shermer in The Believing Brain, is the notion that people form their beliefs first and then look for the explanations that prove them correct.
We form our beliefs based on our own subjective personal and emotional experiences and then search for the explanations that justify our belief.
Some will look at stats over the last year, others the last five years, some take out Shield games, others use those stats, all to find the ‘defining’ stats that prove what they had already decided on, without stats, was correct.
Some performances cannot be defined by facts, but our preconceived beliefs still drive our opinions.
Everyone who saw Quade Cooper’s performance for the Wallabies last week saw exactly the same performance, and yet to some he was a star who lifted the team and to others he was a dud.
This is because his performance was irrelevant.
We have seen and heard enough of Cooper to have already made up our minds about whether he is good or not and the reality of how he played is irrelevant to our opinion of him.
If we hate him we point out a bad pass, if we love him we point out a good run etc. to show our opinion is correct.
So, is Watson a good Test player? Should Cooper be in the Wallabies starting team?
Decide on your position and then start looking for the facts to back you up.
Of course, there are a lot of people who proffer their opinions as facts – but this is only to help them justify their biased opinions.
But then, that’s only my opinion…
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