AnnaSalamon comments on The Apologist and the Revolutionary - Less Wrong

159 Post author: Yvain 11 March 2009 09:39PM

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Comment author: zslastman 20 July 2012 01:37:31PM 3 points [-]

Do anosognosiacs demonstrate the same pathological inability to change their mind on issues other than their disabilities?

This seems like such an obvious gaping question that absence of evidence seems a lot like evidence of abscence. Surely any scientist who hypothesized a general effect on rationality would have thought to test other delusions, or mention that the patient displayed an inability to change her mind in other respects? This would be the difference between an intriguing oddity and a groundbreaking discovery. The patients arm is the least generalizable experiment he could have done - people are known to specifically develop delusions about their bodies that don't translate into general cognitive inflexibility (at least, I've never heard of it doing so, which I realize is flawed). I am extremely skeptical.