One of the things that has bothered me over the years is why bomb techs sometimes make the wrong decisions. In life we all make wrong decisions sometimes and generally no-one gets hurt. On bomb disposal operations that’s different and I think therefore worthy of examination. Some of the implications to this clearly have broader application to wider “military” decision-making. By studying decision making theories and reading papers I’m hoping for more insight into applications for the selection and training of EOD operators, and possibly techniques that operators can use to help validate decisions, or at worst to recognise what sort of decision they are making and why.
I do not claim to be a clever student of psychology but I’m reading into the subject quite hard. For those of you interested I would heartily recommend as a starter Dr Norman Dixons seminal work “On the psychology of military incompetence”. This is a terrific read full of fascinating stories. The book describes “cognitive dissonance” and fundamentally points out that when people are under pressure to make decisions , sometimes they “see what they wish to see” and make decisions accordingly.
I’m wading through other more recent papers dissertations and books on decision making theory and associated psychology and in truth for an amateur it’s a bit of a struggle for me to keep up – but it is interesting and is causing me to think hard. I am constantly trying to place academic theory in real life situations for EOD Operators. I’ve discussed this before on this blog (pages 9 and 10).
Currently I’m looking hard at something called narrative theory, which (if I understand it right!) describes how as humans we perceive our day to day existence in a narrative, story-telling, way. Readers will know already I’m attracted to story telling… We tend to make decisions that result in interesting happy endings and if we are making decisions on that basis while conducting an IEDD threat assessment, then that is a dangerous thing, unless we recognise that we are doing it. The fundamental issue is this, as described as “the Puzzle” by Dr Lee Roy Beach in his book “The Psychology of Narrative Thought”:
First. How do floods of minute electrical discharges in your sensory systems come together to form perceptions that you regard as real. In bomb tech language, “how is the data you absorb at the command post with regard to the IED 100m in front of you presented to you”
Secondly. How do you bring together all these discrete packages of information into a meaningful flow of subjective experience that gives rise to an understanding of how the situation developed in the past, what the situation is now and what expectations are in the future. In bomb tech speak – “What is your threat assessment?”
Thirdly. How do your expectations about the future give rise to decisions and actions which affect the future. In bomb tech speak “what is your RSP?
This is a complex area and too much for single blogs – I’ll trickle my thoughts through as my “reading in” continues. Comments very welcome.