Comment on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 06:00:58 GMT

I suspect you can answer this question yourself: think about all the crimes you don't commit. Heck, think about all the crimes you didn't commit today. Why didn't you commit them?

If your answer is something other than "fear of being caught and punished," consider the possibility that other people might be like you in this respect, and threatening to punish you might not be the most cost-effective way to keep them from committing crimes, also.

But if you want more concrete answers, well, off the top of my head and in no particular order:

Increase P

Compare attributes of people (P1) who commit a crime given a certain perceived (p,EB,SP) triplet to those of people (P2) who don't commit that crime given the same triplet, and investigate whether any of those attribute-differences are causal... that is, whether adding a P2 attribute to P1 or removing an attribute from P1 reduces P1's likelihood of committing the crime. If any are, investigate ways to add/remove the key attributes to/from P1.

Decrease perceived EB -- for example, if a Weber's-law-like relationship applies, then increasing standard of living might have this effect.

Condition mutually exclusive behaviors/attitudes.

Arrange your society so that there are more benefits to be gotten by participating in it than by attacking it, and make that arrangement as obvious to the casual observer as possible.

Discuss