jimmy comments on The Wrath of Kahneman - Less Wrong

25 Post author: steven0461 09 March 2009 12:52PM

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Comment author: jimmy 09 March 2009 09:34:27PM 2 points [-]

If you care more about the results than the method, the answer is obviously yes. I see anger/revenge types of emotions as an imperfect tool for reducing bad things, but since we're smarter than evolution, we can do better.

If you see your anger as an end in itself, then they might disagree. However, I think very few people would be happy getting their car stolen just so they can be angry at the thief.

It seems much more likely that most people don't take the time to think about it. If the costs of something is hidden and it's being paid for by the community anyway, you can't assume that the bulk action of the community represents it's utility function- the incentives are not set up for people to act that way.