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Lumifer comments on Open thread, Nov. 17 - Nov. 23, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: MrMind 17 November 2014 08:25AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 03 December 2014 09:52:05PM *  1 point [-]

People do get won over by arguments.

Sure, confirmation bias is a force but it's not an insurmountable force. It only makes changing one's beliefs difficult, but not impossible.

But what is persuasive and what is logical sometimes seem disjoint to different people.

I agree and I don't find this surprising. People are different and that's fine.

Take the classic "Won't somebody please think of the children!" argument. I, for example, find it deeply suspect to the extent that it works as an anti-argument for me. But not an inconsiderate number of people can be convinced by this (and, in general, by emotional-appeal strategies).

I guess what kind of people are convinced by what kind of arguments would be an interesting area to research.