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Pandering to the over-estimated intelligence of contrarians is the problem. People who self-describe as contrarians, independents, or skeptics are consistently
by jeffbee 2y ago
Pandering to the over-estimated intelligence of contrarians is the problem. People who self-describe as contrarians, independents, or skeptics are consistently associated with lower education, lower information, and lower analytical skills than others without these self descriptions. This extends to politics where people who say they are moderates or independents also have these markers of lower information compared to people who will describe themselves as having a position, no matter what side that position is on. But in popular communications we have for some reason decided to exalt and praise the skeptic and the independent.
- kelseyfrog 2y ago> Pandering to the over-estimated intelligence of contrarians is the problem. It makes them feel smart. Which I'm sure feel's good, but often the signal takes precedence over being correct which leads to the obvious issues. It's the same mechanism that makes conspiracy theories so appealing to another group of people - knowing how things really work is seductive. HN has it's own form that if you've been around long enough, I'm sure you can identify too.
- mvdtnz 2y agoYeah I'm going to need to see some citations for these claims.
- jmpetroske 2y ago> People who self-describe as contrarians, independents, or skeptics are consistently associated with lower education, lower information, and lower analytical skills than others without these self descriptions. This is an awfully large claim to make without any backing research. Some quick googling hasn't led me to anything backing this up, but I would be curious to read anything that says so.