Vladimir_Nesov comments on On the Power of Intelligence and Rationality - Less Wrong

13 Post author: alyssavance 23 December 2009 10:49AM

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Comment author: pjeby 27 December 2009 01:49:38PM 8 points [-]

Do average Americans have the kind of bias in historical education that Dan suggests?

Hell yes. One example: I remember being shocked as a teenager when, going to school outside the US for the first time, I learned that it took the US 100 years longer to free their slaves than Britain. My US education had made it out to be such a big deal that they'd been freed at all, that they neglected to mention that little detail.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 27 December 2009 02:22:53PM *  1 point [-]

Again, an anecdote. It is a piece of narrative representative to the idea that yes, US education is particularly self-embellishing (and thus evoking this connotation in the human mind, with availability and representativeness heuristics etc.), but it's insignificant evidence towards concluding that. Argument-as-soldier, dark arts.

The problem with the argument remains the same no matter whether the conclusion is correct, and whether the intention is to enlighten or to deceive.