The world and reality are much more complex than they seem at first glance. The statement may seem obvious, but it is often forgotten when it comes to addressing and understanding the information we have. And in the current context, in which data dictates decision-making, maintaining a broad and sensitive view of everything can be decisive for the direction of business.

Kiko Llaneras, Writer, Journalist and Doctor in Engineering, was in charge of remembering this during his speech at Visa Marketing Now, a meeting promoted by Visa and designed together with reason.Why in which marketing professionals shared knowledge and experiences with the intention of better understanding the present to anticipate the challenges of the future.

In this summary video you can hear some parts of his speech at Visa Marketing Now. The main conclusions of what Kiko Llaneras transmitted to the attendees are collected below under these lines.

The world is a complex place

Better understanding the present involves establishing better habits in the relationship with data, especially with regard to its analysis and drawing conclusions. As Kiko Llaneras expressed it, the objective must be to move away from the figure of the “brother in law”, understanding him as that person who manifests himself with enormous clarity, but little knowledge.

“The brother-in-law feels that the world is simple and, regardless of the problem, believes that all explanations and solutions are easy“, he explained. “But the first rule to distance yourself from ignorance and think clearly is to be aware that the world is more complex than it seems to us at first sight.”.

The journalist illustrated this idea taking as reference a study carried out by the sports consultancy Driblab with data from more than 150,000 professional soccer players internationally. The research indicates that there are twice as many elite players born in January as in December, and the justification does not find a single cause, but rather responds to a compendium of factors.
The following graph shows the percentage of Spanish players according to the month in which they were born. The conclusions were collected in an article by The Country of 2021.

The phenomenon is explained by addressing, on the one hand, biological issues. And the boys and girls born in January are the oldest on their teams, and they can be twelve months apart from some of their teammates. Generally speaking, this makes them stronger, more skilled, and more savvy. This results in greater probabilities of playing more starting games or gaining preference among coaches.

The perception of the family environment also influences, as when observing that these boys and girls are good at football, they will opt to turn it into a dedication. By the time they grow up, the biological advantage will have disappeared, but its implications will have generated a chain of effects with decisive consequences.

“This is a good example of the complexity of things. That something as seemingly simple as the month you are born influences your chances of becoming a professional soccer player shows that other things, like the neighborhood you live in or your first teacher, do too.“commented Llaneras.”Everything is that complex. This is a reminder that when addressing a problem we must consider all the things that influence it.”.

The impact of nuances and biases

With the intention of encouraging attendees to look at the world in its true complexity, Kiko Llaneras also analyzed other examples. Specifically, that of the generation gap, an issue that has been the protagonist of the social debate, both in public opinion and in the media, over the last few months.
He did so relying, among other things, on an analysis carried out by journalist John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times about how the character of people has changed; or on the evolution of income and assets in Spain over the decades.

He also did so by paying attention to the change in voting intentions of young people, which is trending towards conservatism. The data from the 40db surveys presented by Llaneras during his intervention in Visa Marketing Now, indicate a growing intention to vote on the part of people between 18 and 24 years old for parties from the center to the right of the political spectrum.
However, notable differences are observed according to gender. And in the case of men, this intention has practically doubled in the last electoral period. On the other hand, women of the same age group, despite having increased their intention to vote to the right, remain below men.

However, the trend toward conservatism appears not to have impacted other aspects of the way young people see and understand the world. And although it can be concluded that their voting intention has become “right-wing”, it can be inferred, on the other hand, that they have liberalized on an issue such as sexuality.

The data indicates that young people report having more sexual partners than older people. According to data from January of this year from the CIS, 65% of women aged 35 years say they have had more than five sexual partners, compared to 50% of those over 45 years old and just 27% of women aged 70 years. Something similar happens with men: 78% of 30-year-olds say they have had more than 5 partners, double that of 65-year-old men.

The responses of young people regarding sexual orientation are also another issue that makes it more complex to categorically affirm that the new generations are more conservative than their predecessors. Almost 30% of young people consider themselves bisexual or homosexual, compared to 1% of those over 75 years of age. By gender, a notable difference is observed between men and women: although around 20% of them declare they identify as homosexual or bisexual, the figure shoots up to almost 40% for women.

“These data show that people, like the world, are complex. And it is something that must be taken into account when we approach the data“said Llaneras.”Can you say that society has moved to the right? In some things yes, and in others no. “These are the nuances and inconsistencies that arise when approaching data, which, when analyzed, make clichés emerge that affect the way of understanding reality.”.

If Kiko Llaneras began his intervention by inviting us to distance ourselves from the figure of the “brother in law” When analyzing the data, he also encouraged professionals attending the event to distance themselves from themselves and their subjectivity. Once again, he illustrated the idea by resorting to the perception of users regarding the best decade in the history of cinema, in whose responses each generation generally refers to the one that accompanied their youth.
“This is an example of bias, which are all those shortcuts that our brain takes to make decisions, make judgments or draw conclusions in a distorted way.”, commented the journalist.

Llaneras stressed the importance of identifying and knowing these biases, as well as trying to correct and verify them, and of managing impressions and intuitions that may impact decision-making, whether personal or professional. “My advice is, on the one hand, to rigorously analyze the data and, on the other, ignore that inner brother-in-law that we all have and accept that the world is a complex place.“.