Tyler warns against good and evil thinking (although clumsily). That's good advice. But I think we should embrace biased thinking. I don't mean adopting biases. I mean thinking about biases. I subscribe to the Caplan/Edgerton view of biases. What Robin Hanson calls the One Ring to Rule Them All of biases. What does that mean? It means that we can gain utility out of beliefs that are not aimed at the truth. We can use beliefs to feel good about ourselves ("I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and doggone it, people like me!"). But only in Lake Wobegon can everyone be above average. We can use our beliefs to signal group membership. Part of the reason why abortion and samesex marriage are flashpoints is because they singal group membership into Christian or secular groups. We use our beliefs to gain status. That's why Danniel Dennett calls atheists "brights." The goal is not to appeal to atheism on rational grounds, but as a way to gain status. We can do all these things with our beliefs but the cost is a loss of the truth.
That's my take on the Hansonian side of self-serving baises. I think the Caplan/Edgerton view is equally valuable. Irrational beliefs flourish when we are protected from the consequences of our actions. That happens in politics because no one voter can change the outcome of an election (at least, not usually). It also happens with beliefs that take a long time to be proven true or false. That includes beliefs about how to choose a career, how to choose a spouse, how much to save for retirement, and how much to eat, and how much to exercise. If we are isolated from consequences of having false beliefs then their most useful function is to use them to promote our self-serving biases.
I am not utopian. Deep down almost everyone still views the world in good and evil terms. But in a world characterized by biased thinking the way to prove that your side is good and the other side is bad is by proving that you are above biased thinking. That means bending over backwards to be polite and evenhanded. Good and evil thinking leads to an arms race of nastiness. Biased thinking leads to an arms race of niceness.
Reality and Polling
8 hours ago
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Justin I think unbias thinking is exceedingly important and is something I hope to do a lot more study on. Crtical thinking just isn't enough.
One of my theories is on average the stronger you identify with a partilcular group the more likely that you unconsciously filter or constrain your thinking to align with that groups values and stances.
Some personality types are less likely to do this, but even so how likely is it that anyone is 100% correct on everything?
Or put another way there are things you think you have good grounds for thinking you are correct or right but even so are still wrong because this paricular bias you will never let you know otherwise.
I wonder do you ever ask your yourself what is more important to you winning an argument or getting at the truth?
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