The science of fanboyism

The science of fanboyism

This article delves a little deeper into a thought from a previous post about how our choice affects our future perception of other products.

Are you meta-biased?

Meta: about its own category. In other words, a bias towards a certain bias. Or in this case, a bias about being biased.

It turns out, according to this article, much of what you buy is based on branding, or in other words, bias. You may think you make rational decisions, but apparently “you prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.”

In my mind, this is like being biased about your preferences (or biases) you have towards certain companies and products. You justify your purchases based on what you already have invested in them. For example, I have owned Palm products for a while, and therfore I am biased towards their products. When something better comes along from another company, I rationalize my choices by downplaying that product and pinpointing things mine does better. This effectively strengthens that bias. At least according to the article. Do you think it’s true?

I’ve been trying to revisit my opinions with this perspective. For example, you all know my bias against Apple. Do I dislike Apple simply because I haven’t gone down that road? I’ve invested so much in alternatives, so now I avoid Apple? And to justify it, I find flaws in their system and point fingers at their ethics? How many of my opinions are affected by this? Am I really a victim of “fanboyism?”

Or maybe it’s not that big of an influence on our decisions, which is what I feel is more likely. Yes, I am biased. But I’m not biased to the point of ignorance. I pay attention, I know what’s out there, I know the relative strengths and weaknesses of a product. True, I have a preference, but that doesn’t mean I won’t see reason. I can stand in a grocery aisle and pick out a box of cereal without thinking about it all day, but I don’t blindly buy one product without paying attention to the alternatives. This, to me, is more about turning a blind eye to the things we don’t think are important. Maybe our decisions aren’t completely objective (surprise surprise), but I still think we can be mostly rational.

So yeah, I’ve been branded, but I’m not that loyal.