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RichardKennaway comments on [Link] Algorithm aversion - Less Wrong Discussion

17 Post author: Stefan_Schubert 27 February 2015 07:26PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 27 February 2015 10:26:28PM 29 points [-]

Why, then, is it that people continue to mistrust algorithms, in spite of their superiority, and instead cling to human advice? A recent paper by Dietvorst, Simmons and Massey suggests it is due to a cognitive bias which they call algorithm aversion.

Why is it that opium puts people to sleep? A recent paper by Molière suggests it is due to a property which he calls its dormitive principle.

Comment author: ciphergoth 28 February 2015 09:28:06AM 10 points [-]

Yes, the contribution here isn't explaining it, it's demonstrating it and naming it.

Comment author: Stefan_Schubert 27 February 2015 10:37:24PM 1 point [-]

Haha yes that did strike me too. However, I suppose there could have been other explanations of people's unwillingness to trust algorithms than a cognitive bias of this sort. For instance, the explanation could have been that experts conspire to fool people that they are in fact better than the algorithms. The fact that people mistrust algorithms even in this case, where there clearly wasn't an expert conspiracy going on, suggests that that probably isn't the explanation.

Comment author: fortyeridania 28 February 2015 10:16:27PM 1 point [-]

For some background on /u/RichardKennaway's point, see:

Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions

Correspondence Bias

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