Whether we like someone is influenced by the events with which an individual
is associated. Bad news isn’t welcome. We tend to dislike people who tell us what
we don’t want to hear even when they didn’t cause the bad news i.e., kill the
messenger. This gives people an incentive to avoid giving bad news. To protect
themselves, they tell the news in a way they believe we want to hear it. This
tendency is called the Persian Messenger Syndrome and traces its origins back to
ancient Greece. In Antigone, a messenger feared for his life since he knew the king
would be unhappy with the news he brought.
Warren Buffett says on being informed of bad news: “We only give a couple
of instructions to people when they go to work for us: One is to think like an
owner. And the second is to tell us bad news immediately – because good news
takes care of itself. We can take bad news, but we don’t like it late.”