3 ms·
This is spot-on, and an exceedingly common flaw in human cognition. It drives me crazy when I hear things like "Google wants to _____", "France believes _____",
by lukifer 13y ago
This is spot-on, and an exceedingly common flaw in human cognition. It drives me crazy when I hear things like "Google wants to _____", "France believes _____", "The government is trying to _____", etc. While sometimes it's a linguistic proxy for something concrete (a specific leader, opinion polls, cultural zeitgeist), it's usually a victim of that insidious Dunbar number, and the brain's attempt to cope by treating a large, complex, heterogeneous institution or culture as though it were a single person.
- purplelobster 13y agoI don't think it's quite the same phenomenon, although related. This is about the mental error that people do in assuming that a swing in vocalized opinion is due to people changing their minds, while it's actually just different people speaking up at different times (when it suits them). Example: "Apple fan-boys used to claim skeuomorphism is the best, but now they suddenly prefer flat design, such hypocrites!".