Go back

When less is more

Image: James Brooks

How ruthless should grant writers be with the weaker elements of a proposal or project?

Recently, I listened to a podcast on the topic of persuasion and influence, which featured an interview with Niro Sivanathan, professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School.

The podcast argued that one of our many cognitive biases is that we tend not to think of arguments as cumulative—‘stacking’ and combining, building towards a conclusion. Instead, we tend to treat the overall case as the average of all of the arguments presented in its favour. In other words, a mediocre argument can dilute a good argument, making the overall case less persuasive.

This article on Research Professional News is only available to Research Professional or Pivot-RP users.

Research Professional users can log in and view the article via this link

Pivot-RP users can log in and view the article via this link.