I don't see any evidence that Person B won't defect just as readily, just that they haven't yet realized that other people are wrong. Maybe Person B is wrong simply out of an easily cured ignorance, and will happily become a "Person A" once that ignorance is cured.
In short, I actually know more about the behavior of Person A, and therefore I trust them more. All I know about Person B is that they're ignorant.
Remember person A is the odd one in his society. He dosen't share most other peoples map of reality. Other people have very good reasons to doubt his rationality. Easily cured ignorance of person B is all but so.
Certainly a particular person B might just have not gotten around to realizing this. But I think generally you are missing what was implied in the comparison. Being person B seems to have greater fitness in certain circumstances. And we know there are mechanism developed in our own minds that help us stay person B.
I think we actually know more a...
This is thread where I'm trying to figure out a few things about signalling on LessWrong and need some information, so please immediately after reading about the two individuals please answer the poll. The two individuals:
A. Sees that an interpretation of reality shared by others is not correct, but tries to pretend otherwise for personal gain and/or safety.
B. Fails to see that an interpretation of reality is shared by others is flawed. He is therefore perfectly honest in sharing the interpretation of reality with others. The reward regime for outward behaviour is the same as with A.
To add a trivial inconvenience that matches the inconvenience of answering the poll before reading on, comments on what I think the two individuals signal,what the trade off is and what I speculate the results might be here versus the general population, is behind this link.