3 ms·

> That is, before providing an explicit or institutional explanation for why individuals make prejudiced decisions, one must show that it was not a simple outco

> That is, before providing an explicit or institutional explanation for why individuals make prejudiced decisions, one must show that it was not a simple outcome of unthinking reproduction of statistical regularities absorbed with language. This is an extraordinarily bold claim. I'd be quite interested in how peoples' responses to the article changed if this was the lead.

Osmium 9y ago
> This is an extraordinarily bold claim. Very bold. The full quote is worth reproducing: > Our results also suggest a null hypothesis for explaining origins of prejudicial behavior in humans, namely, the implicit transmission of ingroup/outgroup identity information through language. That is, before providing an explicit or institutional explanation for why individuals make prejudiced decisions, one must show that it was not a simple outcome of unthinking reproduction of statistical regularities absorbed with language. I'm reminded of Parable of the Polygons[0] which illustrates Shelling's model of segregation, showing how quite small initial biases can be amplified and result in very large segregation. It would be seem very sad if tribalism in all its forms is simply an emergent behaviour, a result of a random fluctuation (e.g. one or two racist individuals) causing a chain reaction throughout society, where biases become gradually amplified even if most individuals are, themselves, generally well-meaning. How do we escape from that? [0] http://ncase.me/polygons/ http://ncase.me/polygons/
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > It would be seem very sad if tribalism in all its forms is simply an emergent behaviour, a result of a random fluctuation (e.g. one or two racist individuals) causing a chain reaction throughout society, where biases become gradually amplified even if most individuals are, themselves, generally well-meaning. How do we escape from that? Sadly, that seems to be the case. I wouldn't even turn racism into a "special case" here. Humans are capable of dividing themselves into ingroups and outgroups over everything, no matter how trivial. I suspect the segregation process will occur with all in/outgroup divisions. Separations along the race and gender lines are particularly prevalent because those are the most obvious, noticeable differentiators between people.

Osmium 9y ago

> This is an extraordinarily bold claim. Very bold. The full quote is worth reproducing: > Our results also suggest a null hypothesis for explaining origins of prejudicial behavior in humans, namely, the implicit transmission of ingroup/outgroup identity information through language. That is, before providing an explicit or institutional explanation for why individuals make prejudiced decisions, one must show that it was not a simple outcome of unthinking reproduction of statistical regularities absorbed with language. I'm reminded of Parable of the Polygons[0] which illustrates Shelling's model of segregation, showing how quite small initial biases can be amplified and result in very large segregation. It would be seem very sad if tribalism in all its forms is simply an emergent behaviour, a result of a random fluctuation (e.g. one or two racist individuals) causing a chain reaction throughout society, where biases become gradually amplified even if most individuals are, themselves, generally well-meaning. How do we escape from that? [0] http://ncase.me/polygons/ http://ncase.me/polygons/

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> It would be seem very sad if tribalism in all its forms is simply an emergent behaviour, a result of a random fluctuation (e.g. one or two racist individuals) causing a chain reaction throughout society, where biases become gradually amplified even if most individuals are, themselves, generally well-meaning. How do we escape from that? Sadly, that seems to be the case. I wouldn't even turn racism into a "special case" here. Humans are capable of dividing themselves into ingroups and outgroups over everything, no matter how trivial. I suspect the segregation process will occur with all in/outgroup divisions. Separations along the race and gender lines are particularly prevalent because those are the most obvious, noticeable differentiators between people.