A recent article in the Huffington Post explored the poor ability of people to predict the events of the future – a particularly popular pastime in early January, and getting a lot of press in 2012 especially with the shaky economy and upcoming election(not to mention the threat of the end of the world, according to the Mayans). The author asks this not of psychics or modern-day prophets, but of the experts – people who should be able to make balanced, accurate predictions.

The culprit he fingers? Confirmation bias, the tendency of people to look for and accept information that reinforces their existing beliefs, conveniently ignoring contradictory information. In the context of this discussion, it’s confirmation bias while researching – which the scientific method was created to counteract, and which market researchers are trained to avoid.

There’s another way that confirmation bias can get in the way of Market Research, though – while trying to get business partners to internalize customer information or insights, especially those that contradict their existing beliefs. People are likely to ignore or resist internalizing new information in these circumstances.

The key to getting past this tendency? To create multi-sensory, realistic, and engaging learning opportunities for business partners. While a data point on a powerpoint is easy to dismiss, not so is a customer in front of you demonstrating what this data point says. It’s those three characteristics that make immersive experiences so effective at changing people’s minds – creating visceral dissonance and then rebuilding their “gut” understanding.

MREB members, learn more about these “gut-busting” experiences and how companies like P&G and Alticor create them.