Analysts who took the negative news coverage at face value and predicted weakening results for the defense sector last year turned out to be dead wrong.

FORBES: Sequestration Threat To Defense Sector Begins To Recede

Your first instinct might be to defend your brand, but according to three psychologists cited in a recent Economist article, that instinct may be dead wrong.

FORBES: Reverse Cause Marketing: Coca-Cola Goes on the Defensive

So assume away, but be sure to allow for the possibility that your assumptions are either premature, myopic or even dead wrong.

FORBES: Guarding Against Your Own Market Assumptions