Kaj_Sotala comments on 2014 Survey Results - Less Wrong

87 Post author: Yvain 05 January 2015 07:36PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (279)

Sort By: Controversial

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 06 January 2015 10:10:20AM 3 points [-]

Its also kinda worrying IMO, as it seems to indicate that (surprise, surprise) political reasoning is far more emotional than logical, logic being independent of the hormone balance of the person doing the reasoning.

I don't disagree with the conclusion of political reasoning being more emotional than logical, but "hormone balance affects one's political stance" doesn't necessarily imply that conclusion. Hormone balance could also affect your values. So even if everyone was a perfectly logical reasoner, hormone balance could still put them in different political camps since their values would be different. (The most stereotypical hormone -> values pathway that comes to mind would be that both women and left-wing groups are generally thought to put a higher value on the care/harm axis of the MFT than men/right-wing groups do.)

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 06 January 2015 03:56:46PM 3 points [-]

Yes, you are quite right. My mistake.