Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#1

Post by rzk » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 9:55 AM UTC

Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)
quillette.com

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#2

Post by bsenftner » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

I've been saying it forever: prestige is the #1 driver of human motivation, and because of this humans do not scale. The prestige party destroys forward progress with empty displays of acquired crap.

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#3

Post by nuancebydefault » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:08 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #2

I've been saying it forever: prestige is the #1 driver of human motivation, and because of this humans do not scale. The prestige party destroys forward progress with empty displays of acquired crap.

What do you mean by humans do not scale?

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#4

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:13 PM UTC

"In short, people have a mechanism in their minds. It stops them from saying something that could lower their status, even if it’s true. And it propels them to say something that could increase their status, even if it’s false."

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#5

Post by dustingetz » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:15 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #2

I've been saying it forever: prestige is the #1 driver of human motivation, and because of this humans do not scale. The prestige party destroys forward progress with empty displays of acquired crap.

status is used as a proxy when forced to make a judgement with insufficient time for doing your own research. the more fundamental resource here is limited time. So you can blame the laws of physics for that.

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#6

Post by chrischattin » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:20 PM UTC

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #4

"In short, people have a mechanism in their minds. It stops them from saying something that could lower their status, even if it’s true. And it propels them to say something that could increase their status, even if it’s false."

This was on full display re covid over the last two years.

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#7

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:23 PM UTC

nuancebydefault wrote: post #3

bsenftner wrote: post #2

I've been saying it forever: prestige is the #1 driver of human motivation, and because of this humans do not scale. The prestige party destroys forward progress with empty displays of acquired crap.

What do you mean by humans do not scale?

I think he was referring to this part of the article:

"The psychology professor Geoffrey Miller suggested that as intelligent species become technologically advanced, they spend more time entertaining themselves than on interstellar space travel. Rather than actually going to Mars, they spend more time pretending to go to Mars via movies and video games and VR."

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#8

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:24 PM UTC

chrischattin wrote: post #6

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #4

"In short, people have a mechanism in their minds. It stops them from saying something that could lower their status, even if it’s true. And it propels them to say something that could increase their status, even if it’s false."

This was on full display re covid over the last two years.

Indeed.

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#9

Post by scns » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:24 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #2

I've been saying it forever: prestige is the #1 driver of human motivation, and because of this humans do not scale. The prestige party destroys forward progress with empty displays of acquired crap.

Lobsters are over 350_000_000 years old. Their place in the dominance hierarchy gets signalled in the same way in our brain, with serotonin. The parallel to serotonin deficiency in depressed people is intruiging.

Re: Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox (2021)

#10

Post by deebosong » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 12:26 PM UTC

Anecdotally, I've seen this play out at religious communities (though I'm not at all in doubt that this phenomenon is commonplace and prevalent everywhere). I've often noted to myself when core beliefs that were expressed/ leaked, revealed that rather than being rooted in the Bible for instance (interpretations of which are highly debated), many people's beliefs in said community were often about furthering and advancing the self (as in, for the glory and expansion of self, rather than the glory and advancement of God on God's terms according to certain interpretations of the Bible). And often, these beliefs, when called into question, were supported by famous people, celebrities, scholars that confirmed their biases, and also just groupthink.

I know religion, and in particular, Christianity, may not at all be in vogue in this neck of the woods. But I've been thinking from time to time how inconsistent people from certain religious Christian communities are in their core beliefs, and how much they rely on social status, consensus (including the consensus of those who vocally decry Christianity and demonstrate no interest in following or upholding its tenets), and the peripheral method of coming to conclusions about what is true and what is not.

Def appreciate the article and the concepts laid out in a clear way, that rings true for me in a very specific social slice (regardless of what others may think about said social slice).