The elephant in the room is almost certainly that poverty causes both parasites and authoritarianism
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Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
31–40 of 98 posts
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
What came first?
"First" does not equal to "cause" either.
Second rules out cause though. If you have A=>B and B=>A as possibilities, and you can rule one of them out with a very simple question, that's a good way to start.
If computers came after electricity, they didn't cause electricity. That says nothing about the possibility of electricity causing computers, but it brings us forward nonetheless.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#33I do believe that parasitic load probably has significant effects on a variety of psychological variables and preferences. But the web of causation here is extremely complex; neither do I think testing this hypothesis by looking at state-level governance is particularly useful. Instead, you would want to attain individual psychological response measures related to preference or acceptance of authoritarianism, and related that to individual parasitic load within a particular community; even better would to get longitudinal data showing that within-individual changes in parasitic load are correlated with changes in preference (controlled experiments here face ethical hurdles four obvious reasons). Even then, you are going to have to account for factors that may be correlated with the likelihood of getting parasites and having attitudes that are favorable to authoritarianism.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#34The elephant in the room is almost certainly that poverty causes both parasites and authoritarianism
I've been wondering if there's a correlation between authoritarianism and lead pollution. Like how leaded gasoline seems to correlate with violence and crime. Then that cohort (boomers, more or less) became the largest voting block and changed politics. In my grossly oversimplified worldview, authoritarianism is shorthand for heightened fear response and lowered empathy.
> shorthand for heightened fear response and lowered empathy
Isn't it plausible that those are related? Fear takes the driver seat and pushes empathy into the backseat.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#35Correlation is not always causation.
I don’t understand why this comment is made as frequently as it is. Do you think the authors of the paper aren’t aware of this fact? Do you think they didn’t think of this when they did their research?
I imagine that the authors are so likely to be aware of this fact that you can take for granted that they are.
Having said that, there is absolutely a valid question of did they incorrectly rationalize their approach, or rely on studies that did so, such that they in their own minds thought they addressed the issue when in reality they hadn't. My sense is that parent comment to which you replied probably didn't read the study, the original studies, or consider the point I'm making (sounds like a shot from the hip after reading the title), but the viewpoint isn't necessarily invalid.
Given that some authors have a very real and emotional attachment to ideas they are trying to prove out in such studies... the rationalization error is one to watch for...
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#36There has been some psychological research which hints at this relation of how diseases from outsiders bias decisions against those communities. The literature seems to suggest that it's an evolutionary response to protect the community and these biases are difficult to detect because they are so innate in how we assess risk and process threats to a group. I was just saying the other day that we're one Coronovirus-li…
I'm actually surprised that we haven't had a government try to access that kind of data. They've been generally going at it for all kinds of "small" stuff, burglary, riots, and they're not trying to get their hands on it to combat a pandemic?
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#37The elephant in the room is almost certainly that poverty causes both parasites and authoritarianism
If you read the study, this is obviously addressed - please try to provide specific feedback on the methodology they used that you feel do not address your concerns rather than assuming the authors did not consider obvious points.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s seems especially reasonable to assume if we look at the divide between North Korea and South Korea, a division that has only existed since 1950. South Korea has had increasingly better governance and increasingly less parasites, in contrast to North Korea.
South Korea really took off after General Park Chung-hee seized power, he built the economy and modernized the country. One of the great success stories is the praziquantel story. Korea had a schistosomiasis problem; they developed a process to synthesize praziquantel cheaply (the original Bayer process was more complicated) as part of the eradication campaign. That was in the late 60s. The Park dictatorship was over…
It should probably be noted that the Park dictatorship was overthrown by another dictator, General Chun Doo-hwan, who's party controlled South Korea until 1988. So the demise of the Park regime was not the end of authoritarianism in South Korea.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#39The elephant in the room is almost certainly that poverty causes both parasites and authoritarianism
Or is it authoritarianism that causes poverty and parasites?
Why not parasites causing both poverty and authoritarianism? A big part of the reason Bill Gates is so committed to fighting parasite diseases like Malaria is that there's strong evidence that this alleviates poverty. After all, it makes sense when you consider the effects a case of Malaria would have on a family: children unable to go to school, adults unable to work. If the baseline load of Malaria cases is high enough then it's not hard to see how that would continually depress the economy.
Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)
#40The elephant in the room is almost certainly that poverty causes both parasites and authoritarianism
I've been wondering if there's a correlation between authoritarianism and lead pollution. Like how leaded gasoline seems to correlate with violence and crime. Then that cohort (boomers, more or less) became the largest voting block and changed politics. In my grossly oversimplified worldview, authoritarianism is shorthand for heightened fear response and lowered empathy.
Then what word would you use describe the political leanings of a nation whose people feel threatened by something, like maybe the World Bank and IMF rolling in, and want a stronger government to prevent it from happening?