The other day I read that the US President, Lyndon B. Johnson, was so obsessed with room temperature, that when he was Vice President, he developed an annoying habit of haranguing the flight crew about lowering or raising the temperature in the cabin.
Apparently the flight crew were so fed up of him pestering them about the temperature; they had a ‘dummy’ thermostat fitted in the conference room.
Johnson would be up and down happily fiddling with the thermostat changing the temperature to suit his needs… completely unaware that the thermostat wasn’t wired into the heating and did absolutely nothing.
It was reported that Vice President Johnson never pestered the flight crew again after the thermostat was fitted and was ‘happy’ that he could control the temperature as and when he wanted to.
I don’t know how true that story is, but if it is true, it is a great example of people being bluffed by their perception of reality.
It reminds me a little of the people who appear on television shows such as Eat Well For Less, who are convinced that they can tell the difference between the expensive brands of food they buy and a cheaper alternative.
8 times out of 10, they can’t.
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When the alternative is revealed to them, they are shocked and surprised that they were wrong.
Unless something tastes completely different, very few people can actually tell the difference between brands.
They think they can, but when all of the wrapping and branding is removed, people struggle to tell the difference.
Some people surprise themselves with the fact they often prefer the cheaper alternatives to the expensive brands they have been buying.
Very few people realise that what they like and enjoy is often influenced by:
- The price of a product.
- What they see other people enjoying.
- Advertising
- Branding
If people believe that they will enjoy something because they have seen other people enjoying it, that they are paying for a superior quality product, and because the advertising shows people having a great experience consuming that specific product… people will buy into it and enjoy those products.
It’s not always the case, there are certain foods and drinks that I cannot stand and no amount of advertising or influence will make me enjoy them, but on the whole for a lot of people who don’t have strong dislikes of a specific product, it can.
Vice President Johnson believed that he could control the temperature, and it seems that he didn’t question it. He enjoyed the control even though he didn’t actually have any.
The perception of control – the belief that he had control over the heating – was enough to keep him happy.
If anything, the flight crew were controlling Johnson’s behaviour.
They had far more control over him than he had control over the temperature in the room.
You’d think that he would notice that the temperature in the room didn’t actually change and that he wasn’t really controlling it, but the perception of control was so strong, it obviously overrode the ability.
Maybe his own body temperature was in a constant state of flux and so whenever he moved the thermostat, it felt like he was controlling the temperature because his body temperature changed not long after.
The truth is, not everything is as it seems.
The question is… are you being influenced without realising?
Kind regards.
John Harrison.
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