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lessdazed comments on Knox and Sollecito freed - Less Wrong Discussion

26 Post author: komponisto 03 October 2011 08:24PM

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Comment author: lessdazed 03 October 2011 08:59:20PM 9 points [-]

Could one categorise it as anchoring to the original response?

Every effect has multiple causes (and every cause affects multiple things). You identify a relevant bias but there is no need to stop thinking about what others are also relevant if one determines this bias is.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 03 October 2011 11:00:28PM *  2 points [-]

Ok, I'll run with that.

Most obviously there is a general trend that people become less likely to make accurate deductions once they are emotionally invested in the decision (consider their reactions to the horrifying descriptions of the murder victim's condition). Another issue is framing, previously it was a question of 'Who committed this awful crime?' now it has been reframed as 'This awful criminal might go free.' As gwern mentioned the fact that they are foreign is a factor, local media are unlikely to be kind to them, and punishing them/avenging a local feeds into our in/outgroup biases. And finally, the large publicity of the case means that enough people have heard about it that a significant percentage of them will attach to one side of the case for some arbitrarily bizarre psychological reason of their own whatever the facts of the case.

What have I missed?

Comment author: Dreaded_Anomaly 03 October 2011 11:14:11PM 7 points [-]

avenging a local

Meredith Kercher was a British exchange student, not an Italian citizen.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 04 October 2011 12:11:52AM 2 points [-]

You're right, sorry. Same applies regarding the other possible suspects and the Italian prosecutors and police.

Comment author: fortyeridania 04 October 2011 10:46:12AM 3 points [-]

Voted up for prompt admission of error. This is something I really like about this site, by the way.

Comment author: Bill_McGrath 04 October 2011 12:44:59AM 4 points [-]

In addition, it could be that people see the foreign press's interest in the case, and their support for Knox, as an unfair influence on the case, and they are protesting the court being swayed by the media.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 04 October 2011 12:47:46AM 1 point [-]

Interesting, but surely if they were making a principled point about media interference in general they wouldn't have booed the verdict? As the media interference had already happened the result was irrelevant.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 October 2011 02:15:28AM 6 points [-]

Since the media was interfering in favor of the verdict that actually happened, the verdict is evidence that the court was swayed by the media. They may be (or believe they are) protesting the court's "caving to media pressure" or some such.

Comment author: Bill_McGrath 04 October 2011 10:27:41PM 1 point [-]

Yeah, that was kinda what I meant. Also, I wouldn't assume they're thinking particularly rationally!

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 06 October 2011 01:05:31AM 0 points [-]

Also, I wouldn't assume they're thinking particularly rationally!

Nor would I.