“When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing.” This is a quote from the 1869 novel War and Peace by Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). I can relate to his advice. In my view, doubt is a subconscious brake on conscious decisions, about to be taken. Our subconscious records more input than our conscious. Hence, doubt itself is the benefit of doubt.
Nevertheless, we talk about the benefit of doubt while doubt also has disadvantages, like immobilizing our decision-making and/or procrastination.
Actually, the entire phrase is “giving someone the benefit of the doubt” (dictionary-1). Hence, this phrase is about people and trust; even if we say something rather than someone (dictionary-2).
Example: sometimes people in front of you, are driving slowly and you want to overtake them. Doubt may prevent you from doing that. You might doubt the abilities of your car (ie, something). That doubt may, however, also arise from the validity of your (conscious and subconscious) calculation (ie, someone). Ultimately, doubt is about people and trust.
I have given people the benefit of my doubt. Sometimes, it worked out well. Quite often, it did not. I suppose that risk management plays an important role: what are the downside and the upside of giving someone the benefit of your doubt? In business, there’s often a clear downside. In your personal life, there’s often a clear upside; the downside may be nothing more than time spent.
Giving someone the benefit of our doubt may well be related to our desire to trust people. Giving something the benefit of our doubt probably relates to human greed and profiting from apparent (financial) advantages (eg, Bitcoin). Psychology Today:
“This illustrates our innate human desire to connect with others and create close-knit bonds even if these ties are based on blind trust or lead to Ponzi schemes.” Note LO: URL in quote has been added by me.
“Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.” A quote by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), a British poet. For the meaning of these words, please visit The Ancient Sage.
Giving You The Benefit (1990) by Perri “Pebbles” Reid
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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