The wall of complexity

As the population and the intensity of activity increase, so does the complexity of society, making it almost impossible for any one individual to grasp all the issues and parameters to be considered, as demonstrated by a study published in the journal Cognitive Processing by Benoît Béchard, PhD in decision psychology and associate researcher at Université Laval's School of Psychology.

The study is remarkable in that real elected representatives took part. The sample consisted of 32 men and 21 women: 12 members from the Quebec National Assembly, 8 municipal councillors from Quebec City, and 33 citizens representing the general population.

"However, their performance on the task was very similar to that of the citizen sample. In both cases, performance was remarkably poor. These findings suggest that, when faced with the complex issues that occupy our modern societies and require political decisions, political knowledge is not enough, as human cognition comes up against a 'complexity wall' for both elected officials and citizens."

"Politicians rather regularly make the following mistakes:

• they look for a single cause to explain a situation,
• they consider several objectives to be independent of each other, and
• they perceive the future as a linear and predictable projection of the present."

When you consider that beyond 4 variables, the human brain has difficulty predicting what's going to happen, results like these are hardly surprising when faced with complex problems for which there is no 100% satisfactory solution. The answer to improving this situation lies in training, the use of decision-support tools and simulations, not to mention communication and listening skills.

For the full article: Politicians and the general public equal and deprived before the wall of complexity

Illustration: Võ Mạnh Trí - Pixabay

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