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Because it's an effective means of communication? You seem to be implying a nefarious agenda that's not warranted.

hsitz 13y ago
I don't know whether he was suggesting a nefarious agenda, but I do get discouraged when I see people accepting something as true at least in part because it gets communicated to them with a good story. People are better than that, need to realize that the tendency to accept stories is a cognitive bias that we need to fight against. I've seen people seem to accept the truth of something that's perhaps plausible, but completely without evidence, just because it's presented with a good story. See, e.g, Kahneman's little clip on "Stories" and 'wysiati' here: http://www.inc.com/daniel-kahneman/idea-lab-personal-stories-more-impact.html http://www.inc.com/daniel-kahneman/idea-lab-personal-stories... (I think Kahneman's 'wysiati' explains how a false truth can get accepted by one person, then it gets spread b/c of the story behind it.)
- coldtea 13y ago
  >I don't know whether he was suggesting a nefarious agenda, but I do get discouraged when I see people accepting something as true at least in part because it gets communicated to them with a good story. Not very different than when people accept something as true in part because it gets communicated to them with nice sounding numbers, stats and figures.
- utopkara 13y ago
  Agreed. Some arguments/explanations are inherently operational, and do not lend themselves into stories. Take the argument of creationism vs self organization and evolution. I am pretty sure that many people still don't really understand how evolution could lead to the complex life that we are observing now, and creation by intelligent designer argument joyfully fills this mental gap. The attempts to poorly convert the evolution into a story leads to misunderstandings such as people come from apes, or worse that evolution has a goal and humans are at the apex, or yet worse that some people are just less than others.
utopkara 13y ago
Nope. See my comment above.

hsitz 13y ago

I don't know whether he was suggesting a nefarious agenda, but I do get discouraged when I see people accepting something as true at least in part because it gets communicated to them with a good story. People are better than that, need to realize that the tendency to accept stories is a cognitive bias that we need to fight against. I've seen people seem to accept the truth of something that's perhaps plausible, but completely without evidence, just because it's presented with a good story. See, e.g, Kahneman's little clip on "Stories" and 'wysiati' here: http://www.inc.com/daniel-kahneman/idea-lab-personal-stories-more-impact.html http://www.inc.com/daniel-kahneman/idea-lab-personal-stories... (I think Kahneman's 'wysiati' explains how a false truth can get accepted by one person, then it gets spread b/c of the story behind it.)

coldtea 13y ago
>I don't know whether he was suggesting a nefarious agenda, but I do get discouraged when I see people accepting something as true at least in part because it gets communicated to them with a good story. Not very different than when people accept something as true in part because it gets communicated to them with nice sounding numbers, stats and figures.
utopkara 13y ago
Agreed. Some arguments/explanations are inherently operational, and do not lend themselves into stories. Take the argument of creationism vs self organization and evolution. I am pretty sure that many people still don't really understand how evolution could lead to the complex life that we are observing now, and creation by intelligent designer argument joyfully fills this mental gap. The attempts to poorly convert the evolution into a story leads to misunderstandings such as people come from apes, or worse that evolution has a goal and humans are at the apex, or yet worse that some people are just less than others.

utopkara 13y ago

Nope. See my comment above.