The Junk Science of Recognition by Ratio

It was one of the most famous academic papers on recognition. It was cited hundreds of times. People were intrigued that science had discovered that the highest performing teams had a ratio of positive versus negative comments of 2.9013.

Except the ratio was nonsense.

The story of how the “Losada Line” came to be heralded and then brutally taken down is a cautionary tale for anyone tempted to reduce real people to ratios. It’s all in my latest column for Forbes.