It’s Day 2 of March Madness! How is your bracket holding up? I’m tied for 35th (out of 47) in my friend’s pool. Ouch!
Perhaps I should have spent more than 35 seconds selecting teams this year. What is your approach to filling out your NCAA Basketball bracket?
Do you rely on gut feelings, statistics, expert opinions, or emotions?
I recently heard that 65% of the time, a #12 seed beats a #5 seed in round 1. I wish I knew that before I submitted my bracket, and I might have selected Richmond over Vanderbilt. I did however, correctly choose Gonzaga to beat St. John’s, but admittedly it was not due to a statistical analysis. I just like the name Gonzaga. Would you like to know why I never choose Stanford to win any games? It’s because I intensely dislike their mascot.
Sometimes it’s fun to let emotions override critical thinking. Picking a winning bracket is fun and not a life-threatening decision, so I let down my rational guard and let my gut feelings rule for a change. There’s something satisfying about writing your favorite team’s name in the winner spot. Is there anything wrong with that?
Do you ever let hope or emotions override your brain when the consequences are minor?
However, emotions aside, it is clear that the winner of the tournament will be the Kansas Jayhawks! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Who did you choose to win it all? How did you make your decisions?
Editor’s Note: Breanne Harris is the Solutions Architect for Pearson TalentLens. She works with customers to design selection and development plans that incorporate critical thinking assessments and training. She has a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and has experience in recruiting, training, and HR consulting. She is the chief blogger for Critical Thinkers and occasionally posts at ThinkWatson. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter for more of her thoughts.
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I think part of being a good critical thinker is knowing when to think hard (consider assumptions, arguments, etc.) and knowing when not to. Take gas prices, for instance. If prices very $.10 from station to station, and you travel on average 200 miles each week @ 33 MPG, this requires 6 gallons of gas and your reward for finding the cheapest gas station in town would be .60 cents/week. Save your brain for larger decisions… like driving less or eating out less!
I love the idea of saving our brain energy for the bigger decisions. The gas price example is so true! The same thing goes for grocery shopping for me. While I may be able to get a better deal on meat at one store, and cheaper produce at a 2nd store, I refuse to shop at multiple grocery stores. When I take into account the drive time, creating a shopping list, and my time, it just doesn’t make sense. Save the critical thinking for moments that are critical!
Chad- who did you select for the final 4?