discusses how to
encourage people not to lie.
He notes a clever experiment by Daniel Gilbert (the author
of Stumbling on Happiness
) that showed people were more willing to admit
to having done something wrong in the face of evidence when confronted sometime after the event than when questioned immediately after the
event.
) that showed people were more willing to admit
to having done something wrong in the face of evidence when confronted sometime after the event than when questioned immediately after the
event.
Epley discusses the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon
oil rig explosion, the largest oil spill in history. The rig workers said they feared reprisals
for reporting safety concerns. One worker
said “the company was always using fear tactics”. Apparently, not only would they kept quiet
about their concerns, they would fake data in the company’s safety system. Epley felt strongly that if the company’s executives
had not threatened the workers' with reprisals if they reported safety concerns, the disaster could have been averted.
Epley also describes a University of Michigan
hospital that began a medical-error-disclosure program. The doctors were encouraged to “openly admit
their medical mistakes in meetings with patients, explain what led to the
mistake, and then offer fair compensation.”
This policy resulted in a reduction in malpractice lawsuits from 39 per
year to 17 per year and reduced overall liability costs by 60%.
According to Epley, the problem was caused by requiring the
patients to imagine what their doctors were thinking rather than allowing
doctors to explain how a mistake happened, then encouraging doctors to share their experiences to ensure the same
mistake doesn’t ever happen again in the future.
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