Aurini comments on Yes, a blog. - Less Wrong

88 Post author: Academian 19 November 2010 01:53AM

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Comment author: JGWeissman 19 November 2010 06:36:51AM 3 points [-]

And I hate when so-called educators try to imply Wikipedia is low status or somehow making us dumber.

How much does that happen? It is my understanding that educators don't mind students using Wikipedia to gather information, as long as they use Wikipedia's references to validate that information, and then cite those references. That is, Wikipedia is a valid tool for finding sources and summaries of those sources, but it is not a source itself.

Comment author: Aurini 23 November 2010 11:04:37PM 15 points [-]

The anti-wikipedia bias has shifted from being a pretentious hold-over from the "I spent 8 years learning the names of the relevant sources in my field" to an outright cognitive bias held by the uneducated "Where'd you get that fact - wikipedia? - in that case, I'm allowed to ignore your argument. I get my facts from talk radio."

Comment author: sketerpot 01 December 2010 03:04:13AM 3 points [-]

"Where'd you get that fact - wikipedia? - in that case, I'm allowed to ignore your argument. I get my facts from talk radio."

That sounds like a perfect example of how knowing about biases can hurt people. It's similar to something I often see in religious arguments: someone who wants to rationalize away an argument will often come up with a really flimsy counter-argument, overlook its flaws, and stop thinking about the issue immediately. It's a particularly pathological case of being more critical of opposing views than ones you agree with.