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TheOtherDave comments on The bias shield - Less Wrong
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It seems an alternate conclusion from the data is:
1) When person X publicly asserts their allegiance to tribe Y, it increases the willingness of other members of Y to defend X.
2) If person Z subsequently attacks X, it increases the willingness of other members of Y to attack Z.
3) Beliefs about either the book or Lincoln are basically a distraction here.
If there's a distinction between these explanations, it's that I'm adding an extra cognitive step, and saying that people are engaged in critical thinking about arguments but use knowledge about bias to dismiss some opinions.
Goetz's Razor says, When comparing explanations for a group's behavior, choose the one that requires the least intelligence. TheOtherDave's explanation wins by that test. If we had to choose one or the other, I'd go with TheOtherDave's.
We don't have to choose one or the other. I think both things happen, but people are less aware of the one described in the post.
But, yeah, maybe the entire post should be replaced by your comment.
An excellent policy. I use this one for individuals too.
Same as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor?
Similar, but different emphasis. It's actually just an application of Occam's Razor. Use the accurate model with the fewest moving parts.
And I prefer this formulation of Hanlon's Razor:
(with stupidity as a special case).