MugaSofer comments on If it were morally correct to kill everyone on earth, would you do it? - Less Wrong

-6 Post author: Bundle_Gerbe 30 January 2013 11:58PM

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Comment author: MugaSofer 19 February 2013 01:52:15PM -2 points [-]

It would suggest it, but it's not that strong evidence. Most people are okay with factory farming. Most people put little value on things they don't consider themselves responsible for.

OTOH, in my experience at least, people become a lot less biased when it comes to themselves. Few people would want to be factory farmed ;)

Would you value ice cream independent of your ability to taste it?

Personally? No. But I can imagine a paperclipper that would gladly sacrifice it's life to save the paperclip collection.

Comment author: DanielLC 20 February 2013 05:12:29AM 0 points [-]

OTOH, in my experience at least, people become a lot less biased when it comes to themselves. Few people would want to be factory farmed ;)

Do they, or does their bias just change?

In my experience, people value themselves vastly more than they value other people. Ergo, if you replace them with someone else, they consider it a huge loss in utility.

Comment author: MugaSofer 20 February 2013 10:03:16AM *  -2 points [-]

It's possible that rationality tends to bias you away from your natural impassiveness to large groups and other "far" situations. There's a post on this, "Shut up and divide". But there do seem to be genuine biases leading to underestimates of their suffering, not just knowing about it and not caring.

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