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It’s often not even self interest; fairly often it’s obvious that some participants in these discussions are searching for arguments to validate pre-held belief
by ashtonkem 6y ago
It’s often not even self interest; fairly often it’s obvious that some participants in these discussions are searching for arguments to validate pre-held beliefs and policy positions.
Although sometimes self interest is also a factor.
- donw 6y agoI hate to break it to you, but literally all of humanity does that, most of the time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias This includes me. And you. And everybody else here. Changing your mind is actually really hard.
- ashtonkem 6y ago> I hate to break it to you, but literally all of humanity does that, most of the time I'm not sure why you'd assume that you're breaking anything to me.
- donw 6y agoStating that "some participants are searching for arguments to validate pre-held beliefs and policy positions" is roughly akin to saying "some participants eat food and breathe air". Confirmation bias is part of the human condition, and should be expected by default.
- jimbokun 6y ago> fairly often it’s obvious that participants in these discussions are searching for arguments to validate pre-held beliefs and policy positions. This is true of discussion of almost any topic by almost anyone ever.
- BurningFrog 6y agoYeah, this is just how the human brain works. The big thing to understand is that we lie about these things to ourselves, so we can easier lie about them to others. Unconscious parts of your brain lies to the conscious part!! I learned this here: https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Brain-Hidden-Motives-Everyday/dp/0190495995 https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Brain-Hidden-Motives-Everyda...