In a world with more choices and less clarity about what we should buy or how we should feel about products and services, what leads us to recommend, stay loyal to, purchase from, or give the benefit of doubt to certain companies?
The lesson for China of Japan's policy change - the result of an unprecedented budget deficit - is that foreign investors may not give the benefit of the doubt to Chinese New Deal infrastructure plans next year if private consumption and investment fail to pick up.
Why should we give the benefit of the doubt to someone who has been a bull-in-a-china shop leader for the last two and a half years?
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We were allowed to give the benefit of the doubt to vehicles that were not yet available for test drives, so in some cases, we had more than 10 cars on our lists.
"But also a feeling that because of the priority attached to working on equalities generally, and race equality in particular, a desire to see the work done, and as I say a willingness to give the benefit of the doubt to the organisation when in fact, as we now know, it would have been more prudent to intervene".
Courts are rigorously literal in passing on questions of ambiguity in the questions and the response of witnesses under oath and generally give the accused the benefit of any doubt on possible interpretations of the questions and the meaning of the allegedly perjurious response.
When the Israeli commandos boarded that last boat in the flotilla and, after being attacked with metal rods, killed nine of their attackers, they were acting in a world without the moral authority to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"To quote Rupert Murdoch, 'You've got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt', " Flannery said.
"We usually give the claimants the benefit of the doubt and take things down, thinking that it's better to be safe than sorry, " says Adelson.
But most people are still willing to give the ANC the benefit of the doubt - largely because of the reassuring presence, and moral authority, of Mr Mandela.
And persuading a jury to give the benefit of the doubt to a multi-millionaire banker is exceedingly difficult, making it easy for the government to win a case on thin evidence.
Though Germany may be readier than others to give him the benefit of doubt, the West is unlikely to welcome Belarus, under Mr Lukashenka's thumb, as a prospective candidate to western clubs.
France's Liberation says the committee showed "a hell of a nerve" by awarding the prize to "a very sick patient", but the paper agrees to give the EU the benefit of the doubt and to bet on its "resilience".
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Instead, our government has chosen to give the benefit of the doubt to the enemies of our nation and the critics of its self-defense, by prosecuting the SEALs who risk their own lives to apprehend jihadists, and pushing the false narrative that has come to define detention operations at Gitmo.
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But put this debate aside for the moment, and give Bikram the benefit of the doubt.
Last month, when President Obama said he would send 17, 000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the public was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Rule of thumb is to give people the benefit of the doubt.
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Now many of them will no longer give him the benefit of the doubt.
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The early indications are the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which perhaps put most pressure on ministers with their outspoken criticism the weekend before last, is willing to give ministers the benefit of the doubt.
But, for the Fed to avoid making an inflationary mistake requires Bernanke and his colleagues to get it exactly right, even as a growing number of people become less willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The accusations alone are so damning that people are unwilling to give Rodriguez the benefit of the doubt.
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Some of the new rules are simply that things that some of the things our parents taught us, which were to be loyal, reliable, patient, keep your nose to the ground and good things come to those who wait, and give people the benefit of the doubt.
But I mean it was those sorts of arguments made so very forcibly and with the background of intelligence which actually as it were pushed you over the brink to say, well yes, we're prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt.
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I'd like to give it the benefit of the doubt, but the vultures are circling above.
What is odd is that many others give him the benefit of the doubt.
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"We all wanted to give Raj the benefit of the doubt, " Ms. Gorman said.
They trust Lula's good intentions, and seem willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"We probably ought to give him the benefit of the doubt, " said a senior defense official.
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Should we give them the benefit of the doubt that they never thought the videos would come out?
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"I think Latinos wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially after September 11, " she said.
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