Scan at your own risk: Leaders must look beyond headlines

Staying up to date is essential for successful business leaders. Easy to say, hard to do. Information keeps pouring in from every direction, and we all have plenty of other things to do with our time. So it’s tempting to just scan the headlines and take it from there.

That’s dangerous, to say the least. Some writers don’t care whether what they write is accurate. Others are deliberately deceptive. And still others are just looking for a catchy headline, even if it misrepresents the content of the article.

Grabbing attention at accuracy’s expense

I’m sorry to tell you that I found a good example of this problem in Monitor on Psychology, one of the official publications of my professional association, the American Psychological Association. In the March 2024 issue was a brief item, “My Brain’s, Like, Totally Mature Now.”  A quote in bold type states: “Young people begin to think like adults between the ages of 18 and 20.”

Wow, that’s pretty startling news. Until people are 18, they think like children? Hmm, what does that say about Mozart, Joan of Arc, Louis Braille, Malala Yousafzai, Bobby Fischer and the many others who accomplished great feats of thought before they were 18? 

Maybe I better read what the article actually says. “Researchers compiled results from four studies comprising the performance of 10,766 individuals in the United States ages 8 to 35 on 23 different measures of executive function. Performance on almost all the tasks improved with age, with the biggest improvements occurring between early to middle adolescence (10-15 years) and smaller but still significant improvements from middle to late adolescence (15-18 years). Performance on all measures stabilized to adult levels between 18 and 20 years old.”

The article does not say people begin to think like adults between 18 and 20. It says the biggest gains are made by age 15 and stabilize by 18-20. 

Something to think about and go deeper

Why does this matter? Two reasons. First, it is important for adults to take young people seriously. The title of the article mocks the way some young people speak, and the sidebar misrepresents the research on how they develop. We all know children who say very wise things, as well as adults who are dunces. Let’s not underestimate the serious and complex thought processes of adolescents.

Second, we better be careful about quickly scanning articles, even in respected sources like Monitor on Psychology. I fault the headline writer for misrepresenting the article’s content. But ultimately it is our responsibility as business leaders to verify what we read.

If you’d like to talk more about what it takes to be an effective leader in today’s business world, reach out at ggolden@gailgoldenconsulting.com.