5 ms·
I wonder if a "cognitive bias bias" exists, where a rational solution is discounted in favor of a more inferior one due to falsely attributing your initial solu
by vezzy-fnord 13y ago
I wonder if a "cognitive bias bias" exists, where a rational solution is discounted in favor of a more inferior one due to falsely attributing your initial solution as a cognitive bias, even though it is perfectly appropriate for the situation at hand?
- alok-g 13y agoI am not sure, but I think an illogical argument can be just illogical without being a bias. It is possible to reject the initial solution due to some bias (which may be any of the number of them), but it may also be possible to be just wrong at rejecting it.
- rookieljw 13y agoAgree, have you watched Japanese Soup “Legal High 2” ? To win the lawsuit, the lawyer doesn't case too much...
- baddox 13y agoIt's a similar idea to the argument from fallacy, wherein a conclusion is believed to be false because its argument contains a fallacy.
- zacharypinter 13y agoThere was a great post on lesswrong.com about this: http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_people/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_peo...
- alok-g 13y agoVery interesting. I have always wondered if teaching people about cognitive biases can help them avoid them. On the very least, I am convinced that this may not be as easy as I was thinking. Some relevant excerpts from the cited article: >> If you're irrational to start with, having more knowledge can hurt you. >> I've seen people severely messed up by their own knowledge of biases. >> You can think of people who fit this description, right? This makes sense now. If the brain behind is close to a random baseline in interpreting statements, how can you feed more statements (about interpreting) to expect a positive outcome. A question still remains: Would it help to teach people of these biases when they are kids.
- leoc 13y agoThe impression I keep getting is that (with due respect to "the power of the context" http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004001_power.pdf http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004001_power.pdf) teaching someone about fallacies automatically makes them about 15 IQ stupider.
- alok-g 13y agoDarn! I would be -150 by now. :-)
- leoc 13y agoIt's a one-off effect rather than -15IQ per fallacy, though I wouldn't deny that adding more fallacies could have some cumulative effect. Maybe deeper, rather than more extensive, understanding of fallacies, cognitive biases and so on may start to reverse the effect, though I wouldn't exactly bet on it doing do consistently.
- sitkack 13y agoI am not sure what you are getting at. That the PARC people were too deep in awesomeness to productize it? Just grabbing at straws I haven't read the whole article.
- leoc 13y agoI'm referring to the maxim often repeated by Alan Kay that "[point of view|context|a change of context] is worth [40|80] IQ".
- maxerickson 13y agoIt should be named the basilisk bias.
- Nicholas_C 13y agoSounds like the opposite of the Dunning-Krueger effect[0]. Instead of one with below average skill overestimating their ability, someone with above average skill underestimates their ability. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
- sitkack 13y agoThe DK effect is that everyone is bad at estimating their ability, the lower skilled have more error in their estimates. The DK effect doesn't apply to the person, it applies to the person in the context. I might think I am more skilled at auto repair than I actually am. And in fact, I might think that because I am a bad ass at writing codes. It might be that the DK effect is _more_ pronounced in someone who has mastered a skill that they think transfers to other problem domains. But who knows, I am not a cognitive psychologist, I only play one on the internet.
- leoc 13y agoI do not think it is a common problem. Discounting other people's correct arguments because you diagnose a fallacy or the effects of a cognitive bias? More common.