Rereading my notes on Hugo Mercier.

My inclination is to think that people act wrong based on false beliefs. If only I could explain to them how their beliefs are false, they’d stop acting wrong. But Hugo Mercier’s research points in the opposite direction.

“By and large, it is not because the population hold false beliefs that they make misguided or evil decisions, but because the population seek to justify making misguided or evil decisions that they hold false beliefs. If Voltaire is often paraphrased as saying, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” this is in fact rarely true.¹³ As a rule, it is wanting to commit atrocities that makes you believe absurdities.” (Not Born Yesterday The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe, Hugo Mercier, 2019; My emphasis.)

I know lots of smart people that I’d expect disagree with Mercier’s research. This is hard.

Unclear: Mercier writes “misguided or evil”. Aren’t those two things very different? From the context Mercier doesn’t seem to mean “misled” or “mistaken” when he writes “misguided”, but “Ill-conceived or not thought through” (Wiktionary). Poor choice of words?

#cognition #fakenews #bias #politics #science #mercier

https://keesboomsma.nl/notes/Notes-on-reading-Hugo-Mercier

Rereading my notes on Hugo Mercier.

My inclination is to think that people act wrong based on false beliefs. If only I could explain to them how their beliefs are false, they’d stop acting wrong. But Hugo Mercier’s research points in the opposite direction.

“By and large, it is not because the population hold false beliefs that they make misguided or evil decisions, but because the population seek to justify making misguided or evil decisions that they hold false beliefs. If Voltaire is often paraphrased as saying, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” this is in fact rarely true.¹³ As a rule, it is wanting to commit atrocities that makes you believe absurdities.” (Not Born Yesterday The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe, Hugo Mercier, 2019; My emphasis.)

I know lots of smart people that I’d expect disagree with Mercier’s research. This is hard.

Unclear: Mercier writes “misguided or evil”. Aren’t those two things very different? The term “misguided” seems to allow for my hunch that people can update their false beliefs. But from the wider context that doesn’t seem to be what Mercier means. Perhaps the term “misguided” here simply means that people didn’t come by their beliefs through (good or bad) research, but through other means (upbringing, emotions).

#cognition #fakenews #bias #politics #science #mercier

https://keesboomsma.nl/notes/Notes-on-reading-Hugo-Mercier