In the last month, I’ve been blogging about how to really listen and destroying some myths about listening.

Today we’ll talk about the myths that people in the advertising and marketing fields are special in certain ways. 

The first way we think we might be special is in having a special capacity for empathy. But, Andrew Tenzler in the UK just published the results of a study, called the Empathy Delusion, that explodes that myth. His findings are that advertising people are average in their ability to empathize with others.

For the link to the Tenzler study click here.

Guess what? Advertising people are average in their ability to empathize with others.  

The second commonly held myth is that we aren’t subject to confirmation bias. But, of course, we all are. As I stated earlier—‚we’re all human!

You’ve probably thought about confirmation bias in terms of how it affects consumers’ decision-making, but have you thought about how it affects your own ability to listen?

It means you put more weight on things you want to hear, things that fit with your world view!  So you don’t pay attention to the pieces of information that don’t match. 

Next week, we’ll discuss some of the reasons why people have different worldviews.