> This approach succeeds most of the time when the issue is, say, the atomic weight of hydrogen. The article is interesting but I think misses one critical point. Most "facts" aren't as clear cut as the weight of hydrogen. Most answers to questions will differ according to conditions. As an example not all people will respond the same to a treatment regimen. Low carb doesn't work for everyone for different reasons so…
Aren't Southern history books still teaching the War of Northern Aggression? https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/26/c...
Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
61–70 of 137 posts
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
...except eating 4000 calories a day of fat and protein. Conservation of energy is the law.
Sure, yes, of course, but protein especially being harder to digest means for eating a constant mass of food, lower carb will cause faster weight loss than a higher proportion of carbs in the diet. Also, regarding your HN bio, google no longer claims "don't be evil" as a motto as of 2018.
As for the ease of digestion, I know protein has the same caloric content as carbohydrate (both 4 cal/g). Fat is 9cal/g. Seems straightforward to me.
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#63Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy...None of that is correct Day 1 after the election. On Day 1 after that guy was elected the media--95 percent of it, in lockstep--said the following: "Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia, etc, etc, etc." For years . And then they dropped it when the shit didn't stick…
I take conspiracy to be an active process where folks get together and agree on something. I think what has happened is folks who have different goals without communicating.
The Democrats want to prevent re-election/gain removal, the media wants ratings/profit and activists want attention/change. I don't think they all got together, met, planned things out and ran a conspiracy.
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#64> If it’s part of your ideological community’s worldview that unnatural things are unhealthful, factual information about a scientific consensus on the safety of vaccines or GMOs feels like a personal attack. There's nothing unnatural about genetic manipulation. Nature modifies genes at every level from base pairs to whole chromosome-sets, far more promiscuously than us humans. You learn all about this if you study b…
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: I have learned that objectivity...is astonishingly rare. As somebody who has been in many political debates, I have to agree. A good many are addicted to authority figures to tell them how to think. Another frustrating aspect of human nature is that most people don't know how to be logical . I strive to be logical as a personal goal, but it's often not valued in the work-place, or anywhere. Keep in mind "logical"…
I think this is a false dichotomy. I value objectivity a lot, but recognize that there are lots of issues in human interactions that you just cannot solve well with this approach. In trying to break it down to something tractable, you throw out the important bits. I suspect that sometimes the resistance you find is not due to you applying logic, but instead misapplying it. For what it's worth, I also suspect that som…
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#66> If it’s part of your ideological community’s worldview that unnatural things are unhealthful, factual information about a scientific consensus on the safety of vaccines or GMOs feels like a personal attack. There's nothing unnatural about genetic manipulation. Nature modifies genes at every level from base pairs to whole chromosome-sets, far more promiscuously than us humans. You learn all about this if you study b…
Because I took Biology in college, I can't be skeptical of GMOs?
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#67Twice I have been through interviews that use hours of psychology assessments to filter candidates. One of those was a large hedge fund. Through that I have learned that objectivity is a measurable and identifable personality trait that is astonishingly rare. Most humans are hardwired to seek mutual security, which means banding together as a stress coping mechanism. That incidentally means some natural revulsion of…
Re: I have learned that objectivity...is astonishingly rare. As somebody who has been in many political debates, I have to agree. A good many are addicted to authority figures to tell them how to think. Another frustrating aspect of human nature is that most people don't know how to be logical . I strive to be logical as a personal goal, but it's often not valued in the work-place, or anywhere. Keep in mind "logical"…
Stubbornness may be a survival trait for a social animal. We humans are flooded with facts and logic contrived to cause us to sacrifice our own self interest in favor of someone else's. I've even read that the game of social manipulation is why we evolved our huge brains.
I was born stubborn, according to my parents. The same people who accuse me of being stubborn are often the ones who are the most vigorously opposed to gathering additional information that they can't predict or control.
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#68Isn't that obvious? Think of the human brain as a byzantine fault tolerant distributed system. You are collaborating with other "nodes" that may be malicious, manipulitative or omit critical information. Therefore every message you receive has to be validated but since there is no objective criteria that can be used to form global consensus the only way to validate messages is by drawing upon your existing knowledge.…
I mean, the problem mainstream commentary are really talking about is the accumulation of irrational, garbage world views. But mainstream is hampered in its ability to describe this in particular.
Essentially, the view of journalism, in America especially, has presented itself as a "non-world view", "just the facts" but really having a secular, pro-science, pro-capitalist, etc position. A variety of viewpoints could considered but not an infinite variety. And the endorse variety was the "unbiased", supposedly willing to considered anything. And it seemed plausible for a bit.
Moreover, this mainstream view certainly wanted some things to be taken fully on authority while other things could have their validity debated. Especially, schools and newspapers can't come out and say religious is bunk, they have to couch things as religion is a fine thing but shouldn't impinge on the domain of science or the state. And when talking a world view that is, in my secular world view, screamingly irrational, that's leaving a big hole in your position.
My personal biased view is that the rise of an educated populace in the 1960s lead to that populace questioning a lot and the elites then being happy to gut education. Which lead to a uneducated populace more ready to embrace idiocy. Researchers saying "maybe people should have tools to sort facts from trash" but how did the situation start anyway? Sure, the Internet accelerated this kindling but you had problems with the rationality of the citizenry beforehand.
Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#69Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: I have learned that objectivity...is astonishingly rare. As somebody who has been in many political debates, I have to agree. A good many are addicted to authority figures to tell them how to think. Another frustrating aspect of human nature is that most people don't know how to be logical . I strive to be logical as a personal goal, but it's often not valued in the work-place, or anywhere. Keep in mind "logical"…
I think this is a false dichotomy. I value objectivity a lot, but recognize that there are lots of issues in human interactions that you just cannot solve well with this approach. In trying to break it down to something tractable, you throw out the important bits. I suspect that sometimes the resistance you find is not due to you applying logic, but instead misapplying it. For what it's worth, I also suspect that som…