Shae comments on Navigating disagreement: How to keep your eye on the evidence - Less Wrong
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I sometimes wonder, though, if giving one's own experiences greater weight in situations like these (though not in the thermometer situation) is rational:
If I have a sneezing fit every single time I encounter a bullfrog, and no one's ever heard of a bullfrog allergy, and medical science doesn't support the notion, it's still going to be difficult (and I think possibly irrational) to arrive to the pond without a kleenex. It seems to me that in gray-area situations with strong personal evidence, admitting you don't know why you don't know why is at least as rational as concluding you're wrong.
The relevant question, I believe, is how much weight you should give the evidence from different sources. You should not think that the amount of weight we intuitively give evidence from our own experience is optimal, and this permits a reversal test.