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buybuydandavis comments on [LINK] Why I'm not on the Rationalist Masterlist - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: Apprentice 06 January 2014 12:16AM

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Comment author: buybuydandavis 07 January 2014 06:47:38AM 4 points [-]

Also, there is no particular reason why learning that a group's average IQ is a standard deviation lower than you thought before should cause a decrease in your sympathy and empathy for that group.

If anything, I'd expect it to increase sympathy.

Comment author: drethelin 07 January 2014 08:42:06PM 4 points [-]

I think a lot of people lose sympathy when they feel like there's nothing they can do. You see this pattern with people who have addict relatives or friends who make bad romantic decisions. At first they try to offer advice and money and various kinds of help but as this doesn't work, they revert to not even feeling sympathy anymore. I think ascribing genetic inferiority to underprivileged groups is likely to work like this for a lot of people.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 07 January 2014 11:36:36PM 3 points [-]

I don't think so.

Sympathy tends to extend more for lack of capability than poor choices.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 08 January 2014 11:31:38AM *  2 points [-]

Sympathy tends to extend more for lack of capability than poor choices.

And it takes some non-intuitive insight to understand that in some situations "poor choices" are caused by a "lack of capability". Specifically, a capability to think or act sufficiently rationally. (Where "sufficiently" depends on the specific situation.)

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