People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#31

Post by nathan_compton » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:31 PM UTC

fzeroracer wrote: post #27

nathan_compton wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a Bayesian point of view, promulgating the false rape accusation idea is just irrational. When someone is raped (men and women are raped) they have a prior probability in mind about whether their accusation will be taken seriously. People they report to also have a prior as to whether the rape accusation is credible. In a world where most rapes are unreported there is almost no reason to adjust those priors towa…

I don't think this argument is worth continuing. Not in the sense of being wrong; your argument is correct and I agree with you. But in the sense that the site that started this whole thing is insane . If you take one glance at the rest of the site it becomes quickly clear that the person managing that site is not well.

Given the considerations I posted about above, I don't think it ever hurts to remind people to take sexual assault accusations more seriously.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#32

Post by Aerroon » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:33 PM UTC

cplusplusfellow wrote: post #30

Aerroon wrote: post #26

I wonder if this is why people can become angry and aggressive when you accuse them of something. That would provide a natural defense against this kind of suggestibility. It obviously wouldn't work with the modern police, because they would overpower you, but a few thousand years ago? I think it could've worked.

I can hear the police response now. “Why are you so angry about me accusing you of committing such a heinous crime that may even bear the death penalty if you didn’t do it?”

"Because it's insulting that you think so lowly of me!"

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#33

Post by blooalien » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:34 PM UTC

nathan_compton wrote: post #7

SouthOfHeaven wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> "spending time worrying about false rape accusations in the present environment is demented."

I'm sorry, but not being concerned that some statistically significant portion of rape accusations against fullly innocent individuals often utterly destroys their lives just as much as being raped often destroys that person's life is demented. Both are absolute vile tragedies and should not occur in a truly civilized society. There's something deeply wrong and broken with the people who commit either of those acts.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#34

Post by frogger8 » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:36 PM UTC

So many devs like me have wrote, approved and even committed code that we eventually convinced ourselves was correct.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#35

Post by emodendroket » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:38 PM UTC

yosito wrote: post #28

> The fact that the students appeared to internalize the false events to the extent that they did highlights the fundamental malleability of memory This seems like a bit of a leap to assume that this is about malleability rather than just lying to researchers and saying what they feel is expected. I could very easily imagine myself playing along with someone trying to convince me of false memories just because I don'…

Well this is just the latest of many studies suggesting memory is extremely malleable and suggestible.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#36

Post by emodendroket » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #23

> Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn’t actually commit. It's been known for like dozens of years at least. What happened in soviet Russia and in China during the cultural revolution was all about making people convinced that they had committed crimes and that they deserved their p…

Unfortunately you do not have to look to the past or the other side of the globe to find an epidemic of false confessions.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#37

Post by Garvi » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:45 PM UTC

I believe if a concentrated effort was made on social media to censor all talk of "round earth theories" (the exception being posts that are sufficiently dogpiled and ridiculed, to be made example of), creating a fake display of global unified flat earth thinking; given only a few months, 99% would turn flat-earthers. I also believe the only reason this has not happened yet is because there isn't any real profit in doing it. Social media is an incredibly powerful tool for manipulating people by displaying a fake image of them being alone in their way of thinking and in need of readjustment or risk ostracization. Ironically I couldn't explain on a better example, as mentioning cases closer to reality would just get this post censored. And I'm not talking about vaccines, gender or race theory. And if you can't immediately think of 20 things you're just not allowed to say on any platform, you're just not thinking anymore.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#38

Post by beecafe » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

Garvi wrote: post #37

I believe if a concentrated effort was made on social media to censor all talk of "round earth theories" (the exception being posts that are sufficiently dogpiled and ridiculed, to be made example of), creating a fake display of global unified flat earth thinking; given only a few months, 99% would turn flat-earthers. I also believe the only reason this has not happened yet is because there isn't any real profit in d…

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Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#39

Post by FrustratedMonky » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:48 PM UTC

yosito wrote: post #28

> The fact that the students appeared to internalize the false events to the extent that they did highlights the fundamental malleability of memory This seems like a bit of a leap to assume that this is about malleability rather than just lying to researchers and saying what they feel is expected. I could very easily imagine myself playing along with someone trying to convince me of false memories just because I don'…

Strong bias on HN about replication. But the ability to implant false memories has been widely researched and replicated. This isn't a stretch. Memory is very fallible.

Re: People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

#40

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 17, 2023, 1:51 PM UTC

Garvi wrote: post #37

I believe if a concentrated effort was made on social media to censor all talk of "round earth theories" (the exception being posts that are sufficiently dogpiled and ridiculed, to be made example of), creating a fake display of global unified flat earth thinking; given only a few months, 99% would turn flat-earthers. I also believe the only reason this has not happened yet is because there isn't any real profit in d…

[deleted]