I have been pondering about how we can sometimes ignore or misread data that are screaming to tell us something important. There is a phenomenon referred to as “groupthink” that occurs when a group of otherwise reasonable people ignore empirical data and experience in favor of convincing each other that a particular situation or outcome is either guaranteed or impossible.

Perhaps the most well-documented example of a groupthink situation is the report by Lea P. Stewart, “Where Were the Whistleblowers? The Case of Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly,” about the events that led to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

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