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Yosarian2 comments on Rationality test: Vote for trump - Less Wrong
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Not at all. My utility function might value my self-perception as a person who votes for X. It might value the ability to rant about how I did or did not vote for X and therefore all the bad policies are not my responsibility -- if only they have listened to me! It might value the warm glow of having done my civic duty of helping the forces of light triumph over the spawn of evil. Etc, etc. None of this is particularly weird.
I would argue all those values are irrational. Ticking a box that has no effect on the world, and that no one will ever know about, should not matter. And I don't think many people would claim that they value that, if they accepted that premise. I think people value voting because they don't accept that premise, and think there is some value in their vote.
I would say that values that may not be utility maximizing on the individual level, but which are on the cultural or national or even species level so long as most people hold those values, are totally rational. It's like chosing cooperate in the prisoner's dillema but with billions of players; so long as most of us choose cooperate we are all better off. So in that situation it's rational to cooperate, to encourage others to cooperate, and to signal that you cooperate and reward others who do.
"The civic virtue of voting and taking your vote seriously" is a great example of a virtue like that. It doesn't directly matter to you if you do, but we all are much better off if most people do.