4 ms·

Anyone else a bit freaked out at how effective social influence is? What does that say about how we form opinions?

• cwkoss 7y ago
  I think 95%+ of opinions are directly regurgitated from others, but we humans mistake our own novelty with the idea for the idea actually being original. Thinking about my teenage years, I'd often see a documentary and then "come up" with concepts it covered a week or two later. Similarly, I think one of the biggest issues with "bot influencers" is that the average human is not good at thinking for themselves and regurgitates whatever they agree with/protects the ego. The online activity of many technology-naive middle aged users gradually becomes indistinguishable from the bots they follow.
  • Kifot 7y ago
    What do you think is the best approach to make sure one's opinion is independent without spending a massive amount of time on getting an expertise in the subject?
    • krapp 7y ago
      You can't. Independent opinion doesn't exist - you would have to validate every datum you're presented with starting from first principles, which is impossible. Accept that most of your opinions will be informed by the opinions of others, likely directly, and your method for judging truth will instinctively be biased more towards emotion, social status and ego-preservation than than logic and fact, because humans are social animals and that's just how we're wired.
• repolfx 7y ago
  Are you talking about Twitter accounts here, or the influence of journalists? ;)