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dbaupp comments on Magic Tricks Revealed: Test Your Rationality - Less Wrong Discussion

31 Post author: peter_hurford 13 August 2011 05:23AM

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Comment author: dbaupp 21 August 2011 02:14:44AM 2 points [-]

Countries where people trust more are generally more prosperous and while there are correlation v. causation issues here there's surrounding evidence which suggests that there really is a causal link from high trust to more prosperity.

My intuition (and only my intuition, I haven't been able to research this effectively) suggests that the causal link is in the other direction. That is, in more prosperous countries/regions there is higher trust, since fewer people (in general) need to push limits to be able to live comfortably, so there is less crime.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 21 August 2011 08:44:01AM 0 points [-]

It's worth noting that a standard technique to weaken a rival group is to deter or prevent its members from cooperating — sometimes by disrupting their communications; but also by inciting rivalries or jealousies (i.e. lack of trust) within the group. We see this in everything from high-school cliques, to Internet trolling, to office politics, to counterintelligence and psyops among nation-states.

Ceteris paribus, any human social group is more effective if its members cooperate toward accomplishing its goals. Therefore a rival group which wants to prevent those goals from being accomplished can do well by disrupting the group's cooperation.