Perhaps This Explains the Light Rail Fanatics

One recurring theme in both politics and business is the fanatic. Alone or in groups, these are folks who are true believers. Don't bother them with facts - they don't care.

One of the differences between politics and business is, the business fanatics will, if wrong, eventually run out of money and stop. Politics is all about playing with other people's money - those fanatics can go on in the wrong direction indefinitely if not stopped.

A new AMA study sheds some light on the phenomenon. In essence, people who buy in to the initial justification for a project will actively ignore or discount evidence, however strong, that the project isn't working. Apparently there's no clear technique available to make folks get past this bias if they're prone to it. Organizationally, the only hope is to make other people responsible for vetoing the plan if certain prearranged conditions aren't met.

Why other people? Apparently, once the first group gets bought in to the project, they will find ways to justify ignoring the prearranged limits.