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JoshuaZ comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5 - Less Wrong
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So have lots of cop shows on TV? That seems to be the best strategy given how much people generalize from fictional evidence.
That is a chilling thought. The preponderance of cop shows on TV is real-world social engineering to predispose individuals not to commit crimes?
There's a simpler explanation: people like watching cop shows with mythically competent investigators because it helps them maintain the pleasant belief that most crime will be detected and punished. This not only makes them feel safer, but also helps them rationalize away any feelings of cowardice or subordination associated with choosing to follow society's rules.
To the extent that network execs push cop shows with happy endings for ideological reasons, it's much more likely that they simply applaud when they see "criminals get caught" than that they follow any hypothesis as complicated as "the best way to deter crime is to lower criminals' confidence that they will escape detection by propagating fictional evidence that people will erroneously generalize from."
Right; stupidity (or at least, weakness to bias) is a much better explanation than malice.
Agreed.
Even if there's an attempt at social engineering, the audiences would have their own motivations for watching.
Anyone have information about whether such shows are popular with people who are subject to obviously corrupt and/or arbitrarily violent policing?
Infallible police shows might also be popular because people identify with the police-- it would be fun to be right all the time and able to enforce it.
Not in most cases, but in some.