Identifying 5 Psychological Traps in Cannabis

“Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.” Niccolò Machiavelli

Humans are vulnerable to cognitive biases and fallacies which can lead to dashed expectations, organizational conflict and unhappiness.  

While mental traps are common across all individuals and cultures, they are especially pervasive in the cannabis industry and community given the sector’s unique history, culture and regulations.

These psychological shortcomings – both obvious and hidden – obstruct decision making, sabotage internal & external communications and foster unrealistic business expectancies.

Identifying the presence of these 5 omnipresent traps will help you pre-empt and cope with their negative effects:

1. Benford’s Law of Controversy

According to this author and astrophysicist, passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.  Some may consider passion cheerleading, and others shit disturbing or narcissism.  Nonetheless, we would be mindful to heed his observation just before important industry milestones such as when regulatory reform is up for a political vote or a cannabis firm is about to go public. 

2. Hofstadter’s Law

If you have ever tried to raise money, launch a product or secure a license you will understand that everything in cannabis takes far longer than you think it will, even when you account for Hofstadter’s Law.  One always need more capital, time and patience than first thought.

3. Paperts Principle

Some of the most successful people I know intuitively govern themselves by the principle that: "Some of the most crucial steps in mental growth are based not simply on acquiring new skills, but on acquiring new administrative ways to use what one already knows." According to this MIT professor, having knowledge is never enough.

4. Dunning Kruger Effect

Basically, the DK effect is where people who are unskilled in some area overestimate their abilities. This bias is quite common among cannabis leaders, particularly those that come into the industry with successful track records elsewhere. Hold off on the applause:  this trap affects both ‘Roots’ and “Suits’ and is closely related to the Peter Principle. 

5. Chesterton’s Fence

This famous English author contends that change should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood. This principle is a call to action for managers to understand the current state and its ‘reason why’ before undertaking transformations.

#psychology #cognitivebias #cannabiscommunity #bias