Kim Gaskill uses coffee bean preferences to show how studies get skewed by bias. Businesses cherry-pick data that confirms what they want to believe, leaving out evidence that doesn't fit. The lesson: seek balanced information and be honest when you're the one presenting numbers.
It's a new day. I'm Kim Gaskill, and this is the Daily Spark. Do you drink coffee in the morning or at all during the day? I'm a big coffee drinker. I drink coffee all day long, and I'm making my coffee this morning, and I was talking to my sister-in-law about different types of coffee, different types of coffee bean. I tend to drink a darker oily bean. That's my preference. More caramelly chocolatey notes. I don't tend to buy beans that are from regions where it's acidic because it bothers my stomach. I can drink 1 or 2 cups of that coffee and, and my stomach is bothering me. And whereas I can drink 10 cups of espresso bean and it doesn't bother me at all. And that's because I know, I listen, try to listen to my body. And I, and I know the signs when I need to modify something. And that takes some training and some experience and, and some people are really good at that and some people need to work on that. But as we're talking about the different beans and it's, it's funny, it's as, it's as complicated as wine and craft beer when you think about it. The coffee industry over the years has gotten so big and complicated, and the tea industry too is starting it. And, you know, all these different nuances to coffee beans and to tea leaves. And so I'm looking up some data, and as I look at the data, I'm seeing all these articles about coffee being bad for you or coffee being good for you. Now, over the years, people have said to me, I don't know how many times, Kim, you shouldn't drink so much coffee, it's bad for you. And, and on some levels, that is true. And, but there's also studies out there that support the position that drinking coffee is actually good for you. It can lower your risk in certain things. It depends on what study you're looking at. It depends on what information you're going to get. So I got to thinking this morning, you know, when they started all these studies about coffee being bad for you, the industry wanted us to think coffee was bad. So the only studies that were done, the only information they looked at was They had a cup of coffee in the morning. All those people who have a cup of coffee in the morning also have higher heart disease and have higher risk for ulcers and all of this. So I'm gonna evaluate that data and say, okay, I can come to the conclusion, drinking a cup of coffee in the morning gives you a higher risk for heart disease and ulcers. But they weren't looking at the fact that they also had no exercise program. They had a terrible diet of fat and sugary foods. They— smoked, you know, other things that they did that could have contributed to those health factors and increases in those unhealthy people. But they were only looking at the coffee because that's the message they wanted to send. Now, if you go out today and you own a coffee shop, you want to only go look for information that supports the fact that coffee is good for you. Drinking a cup of coffee a day will actually lower your risk for stroke. Drinking a cup of coffee a day will actually increase your productivity. All these things that, that people put out there You go look for that information because that's the message you want people to see. You don't want them to see anything that says it's unhealthy because you own a coffee shop. Now, if I own a tea shop, I'm gonna do just the opposite. I'm gonna go find every article I can find and every research study that I can find that says coffee is bad for you. It's gonna increase your health risk for this, dot, dot, dot. So depending on the message we want people to see or hear, Is that how we're going and looking for our information? Are we biased to begin with because we're only going to look for information that supports our position? Or are we truly going out and trying to find the best information that we can, the best data that we can on both sides of the position to evaluate and make a good decision of what is factual, what, what is What is the information we want to put out? Do we want to put out skewed information to our customers? Do we want to play that game and, and have that lack of integrity that says, I'm going to deceive them by only giving them this information? Or are we going to give them all of the information and let them make the decision for themselves? That's my question to you today. How do you do business? Go get a cup of coffee and think about it, and join me again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
