We've highlighted this in our recent study conducted with OpinionWay on data usage by business leaders: data has not yet reached its full potential in business management. Underlying this, it seems there is a cultural and psychological aversion to utilizing data in France. Where does this hesitation come from towards embracing such a powerful tool? Is it an unease with numbers and mathematics? Or is it an intellectual populism painting these data in different shades?
Just as we accept today that a brand is an "intangible asset", invoking two seemingly opposing mindsets ("asset" representing the concrete and rational, "intangible" the psychological and sensitive), data invites us to view the world in its complexity, balancing the objective and subjective. Let’s dive into these realms to unravel beliefs and facts, and discover how to better embrace these numbers that mistakenly intimidate us...
Complexity & Tensions
Complexity is present within each of us: I, Eric Bonnet, appear full of contradictions. I'm both a scientist, with my initial medical background, but also an economist grounded in facts and figures, and a sociologist who observes, contextualizes, and predicts for decision-making. And I assure you, I am doing quite well! All these facets complement and enrich my worldview.
Yet, whenever the topic is "data", I notice among some people extreme anxiety, accompanied by various excuses to avoid addressing the issue, leaving it instead to experts. As if they fear mixing everything, as though it is solely a specialist matter, comprehensible only by experts adept in the occult art of numbers.
Data: All-Powerful or Alienating?
In this resistance to data, we see two starkly opposite viewpoints emerging today. On one hand, those who believe everything should be driven by data in business management, and even in our lives. On the other hand, those who envision a "big brother" society where robotic functioning would swallow our freedoms.
This represents an extreme oversimplification, a form of intellectual populism, hindering effective analysis. Businesses haven't relied solely on the rise of data to thrive... and there hasn't been a narrowing of possibilities (rather the opposite) since the inception of statistical science in antiquity. We must thus discern between these excessive simplifications: beliefs versus facts.
Many Reasons Behind the Fear of Numbers...
The phobia around data might originate from a dystopian mindset in some science fiction literature. What if George Orwell's 1984 was actually prophetic? Could the big data track destroying all prospects of privacy?
It might also come from excessive dramatization: when speaking of "oceans of data " built from "our transactions, our routes, our habits, friends, and moods", or more prosaically a "dictatorship of numbers", naturally it stirs fears.
There are also persistent cultural beliefs linked to numbers. Are you familiar with tetraphobia, the fear of the number 4, prevalent in China or Korea? In those places, you might find buildings absent of a 4th floor, moving directly from the 3rd to the 5th, or replacing it with level "F" (for 'four' in English).
For some, there's a simple cognitive inability to handle numbers correctly. Numerical dyslexia, commonly known as dyscalculia, is a well-identified disorder that can prevent individuals from reading time or managing even a simple budget.
...But French Especially Frustrated with Mathematics.
Most often, behind the fear of numbers, lies a childhood-related block, especially in our relationship with mathematics, whose academic level in France ranks near the bottom among EU and OECD countries. This aversion to math stems from a dual issue: the nature of the discipline and the method of teaching it.
First, mathematics is inherently abstract. In our mental realm, a number or calculation doesn't initially relate to anything but itself. Consequently, they can easily be associated with personal trauma, or simply a classroom situation, like paralytic shame from solving an equation at the blackboard.
These painful memories also arise from the manner we learn, and the trauma potentially caused by an unempathetic math teacher. Again, because the discipline is abstract, the image of such an intimidating person unconsciously overlays onto numbers and diverts us.
A 2012 University of Chicago study even proved that the active anticipation of an exercise (similar to a math problem) could activate brain areas associated with pain, reconnecting us to past painful emotions. Who said our relationship with numbers was cold?
Statistics: Useful for Describing, Illuminating, and Understanding Reality
Back to basics: why use numbers to describe the world? Firstly, because quantifying means identifying and acknowledging the existence of something. It implies saying "I measure; therefore, this product, this brand, this societal fact exists", similarly to any behavioral or psychological aspect of a consumer.
This latter point raises questions: Can and should we measure individual psychology? I would say yes, and much of modern psychology indeed employs statistics. There’s no need to fear, as the data provided is far from complex math… which we leave to data scientists themselves.
However, these individuals aren’t any more cold and cut off from their emotions than us. They are passionate, driven primarily by the desire to describe the world optimally to understand it. As mathematician Michael Francis Atiyah reminded us: "without dreams, there’s no art, no math, no life".
Towards Data-Relativity as a Source of Progress
Someday, we might say, like mathematics, that data is beautiful, vibrant... may even be "useless" for the pleasure it offers itself! It will provide a universal language allowing the creation of a data-mathematical community that, freely sharing knowledge, contributes to global knowledge advancement and progress.
Today, data is already assisting in better functioning our world by enabling:
↳ reasoning, through better understanding complexity, deciphering challenges, and analyzing discussions to make informed decisions;
↳ abstractions, since data emerges from everywhere and can infiltrate anywhere, composed of universal conceptual and logical sequences;
↳ rigorousness, when reactivity demands risk diverting us from long-term goals, leading us to pause and reflect due to data analysis;
↳ acceptance of delayed gratification, as Euclid reminded: "if you touch math, you should not be hasty or greedy, even if you’re royalty";
↳ relativizing, though I don’t claim we should manage brands or the economy solely by numbers, we shouldn’t have an irrational fear of them either.
This "data-relativity" also works the other way: we shouldn’t blindly trust data either. It’s well-known you can’t rely solely on statistical correlation to establish a link between phenomena. In December 2012, the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing an extremely significant correlation between chocolate consumption in a country and the number of Nobel Prizes it received… proof that numbers can be made to say anything.
The Need for Creative Consultants as Bridges Between Objective and Subjective
Ultimately, we see that data and branding share a similar nature: both are intangible assets that need protection and strategic mobilization. Like chocolate, they can spark emotions and solve many problems… provided the right recipe is known and properly showcased!
Transcending the simplistic divide between emotional and rational, subjective and objective: this is the role of us consultants in data matters. We must certainly steer brands back to reason when they stray into passions veering from reality, yet not locking ourselves in a stance or elevating data to a sacred idol.
We must understand the common characteristics to best place individual peculiarities and act as a bridge between objective and subjective. We are craftsmen moving between theoretical constructions and unique experiences, between major structures and specific meanings, between intellectual and operational strategies. Nothing opposes; everything complements.
