Interesting article on the STAT news feed last week:

http://www.statpub.com/stat/open/245323.phtml

The short answer - based on what the article says - is that passion tends to outweigh an objective examination of, say, the numbers. But I'm thinking that the same thing somewhat applies to all businesses. I use to work in the fishing tackle industry, and I saw the same kind of thinking there, too.

STAT, BTW, is a Canadian-based ag news service, but the article has info and examples from both sides of the border.