Experts Are Right, He Reasoned
April 18, 2011 16 Comments
In this post, Matthew Yglesias links to a study that shows a certain personality type (“egalitarian communitarians”), when shown a point of view by someone they are told is an ‘expert’, and shown a ‘fake’ resume of that ‘expert’, are almost universally inclined – 88 percent in one instance – to accept that ‘expert’ as “trustworthy and knowledgeable”. Meanwhile, “hierarchical individualists” are far less inclined to trust the (fake) ‘expert’.
As far as I can tell (and admittedly, it’s hard to tell), Matthew Yglesias thinks this illustrates something bad about the hierarchical individualists’ reasoning skills vs. those of the communitarians. Which, is hilarious to me. But I guess if I were a communitarian egalitarian – i.e., had better ‘reasoning’ skills – I’d just reactively accept the brilliance of Yglesias’s point.
After all, he has a Harvard degree. And not even a fake one (to my knowledge).
Well, it seems his main point is a good one, that we should all fight confirmation bias by keeping track of the opposition’s strongest arguments against our cherished positions. But if liberals actively did that they wouldn’t be liberals.
This divide between individual thinkers and “egalitarians” is nothing new. Yglesias is simply discovering the Architect vs. Medicator divide. Medicators value agreement over clarity; they’re much more likely to get hoodwinked by dazzling but fuzzy credentials (the study linked seems to support this). Architects are like Henry Rearden out of Atlas Shrugged: “I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks.” Hammurabi had a code (229) that said “If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.” And there’s the broad meaning of “architect”: Someone who regards the universe and all the objects in it, and thinks on them in such a way that he is comfortable constructing a five story building and then walking on the fifth floor. Or, laying a track of his brand new metal in Colorado and then riding a locomotive upon it.
When your very life depends (or your livelihood depends) on getting it right, you’re much slower about delegating decisions. And you stop giving a damn what anybody else thinks, in a great big hurry.
In modern times, liberalism has come to mean getting away from that kind of healthy thinking. It has come to think about the universe & things in it, the way insects do; in a hive arrangement, in which getting the right answer is not nearly as important as making sure every drone has a role to play, and fulfills that role. Arguing with conservatives & basking in the dazzling brilliance of Obama, are simply ways to…”medicate.” It’s what they do. And yes, leave all that hard, challenging, detail-oriented thinking to essentially nameless strangers with awesome credentials.
I find it telling that the “communitarian egalitarians” in Yglesias’s comment section are quick to point out that they are oh so much smarter than those who disagree with them, disagreeing others who are evidently not in the same community or in line for egalitarian treatment.
Yes, they do always seem to have their own special definition of “everyone,” don’t they?
>”Which, is hilarious to me.”
huh?
That comma kind of invalidates the credibility of anything you wrote in that blog post.
I can hear you protesting “why harp on little things like commas and spelling? What about the Substance”, but, sorry.
heh, back from C., the people’s republic of.
The comma was for effect. You wouldn’t understand.
I don’t understand
I knew you wouldn’t.
You might be just bluffing.
So wait, is my site banned in China (or California or whatever p.r. you were stuck in)? Thanks in advance,
Well, last time I was in Beijing, if I’d click on the wall street journal, on youtube, on facebook, on your blog, on any blog the result would be to get nothing.
I knew about fb. No big surprise. But youtube?? Blogs??
This time I more or less properly moved to C. (Shanghai) and didn’t even try blogs once I saw youtube and fb are beyond reach I figured the rest are blocked too.
In a way it’s cool for you. You can add “Banned in China” to your logo. It’s an honor, in a sense.
I figure the Chinese are quite strict about some things. There may have been an inadvertant comma (or, for effect) in some blog post of yours in the past (these things happen). They’re very keen for people to learn English so the last thing they want is for them to be corrupted by misplaced commas. Which, I sympathise with.
I agree with Anon. The wrapping paper is more important than the gift.
Thanks for agreeing. Of course you’ve got it wrong. I mean it depends on the size of the gift and the quality of the wrapping paper. But in sonic’s case, it’s not just wrapping. That sordid comma puts a giant question mark over his credibility (which, is now possibly forever tarnished). It certainly shows he wasn’t thinking clearly when he wrote his blog post.
Though who knows, maybe the “for effect” thing actually means something. Hard to tell.
Holy crap. A misplaced comma is “forever tarnish”-ing? I’m just discovering this week the traffic-yielding power of a real live honest-to-God spelling error. Man, I must have really stepped in, it.
The horror…the horror…
It wasn’t an error. It was intentional, I meant every nanometer of that comma, and I’d do it again! Strunk and White, can go to h e double hockey sticks. Ha!
He might be able to get away with it (so not forever tarnished) but if he gets big some blog-reporter-archaelogist would start digging into his past, and that comma would come back to haunt him.
At which point he’ll have to properly explain his “for effect” argument.
I can’t wait till I get big. That’s gonna be awesome.