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I think it goes back much further than that. Humans generally don’t like to hear that they’re wrong. It triggers the fight or flight response. This psychologica
by christophilus 5y ago
I think it goes back much further than that. Humans generally don’t like to hear that they’re wrong. It triggers the fight or flight response. This psychological phenomenon gets triggered easily, with many false alarms.
To someone who likes Walmart, the statement “I prefer Target to Walmart” triggers that part of human psychology, even though it shouldn’t.
You see it everywhere, in every subject, in any time period you choose to observe.
Edit: Charlie Munger understands this well and counteracts it by actively seeking to destroy his own opinions.
- miltondts 5y ago"Humans generally don’t like to hear that they’re wrong." Maybe that binary view is one of the root causes, as being "wrong" is not really a thing in many areas. In fact this has roots in Aristotle's logic. Some years ago, general semantics ("the map is not the territory") tried to offer some push back on that binary view. Humans do appear to prefer simplifications, with the binary point of view as a possible reflection of that, but we have had some success in evolving our tendencies through education.
- christophilus 5y agoI agree, which is why I wrote “generally”. It’s definitely not absolute. Munger is a clear outlier. But it’s a fair generalization in my experience.