You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Bikura comments on Stupid Questions April 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: Gondolinian 02 April 2015 09:29PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (145)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: [deleted] 03 April 2015 08:50:06AM 2 points [-]

Can comforting lies be justified in certain circumstances or do the downsides of this thinking habit always outweigh its benefits? (Example: Someone takes homeopathic remedies to cure pain and benefits from the placebo effect.)

Comment author: Artaxerxes 03 April 2015 04:37:16PM 3 points [-]

Consequentialist ethics would suggest the answer is yes, but in your example perhaps a better result would be getting the same placebo effect benefits from some kind of treatment or remedy that might actually work in itself, beyond placebo. Indulging woo isn't necessary to get positive expectation health benefits.

Comment author: Gondolinian 03 April 2015 08:20:09PM 4 points [-]
Comment author: MathiasZaman 04 April 2015 09:24:09PM 2 points [-]

Knowing about the placebo effect doesn't stop the placebo effect from kicking in.

Anyway, I'd say that there are moments when comforting lies may be worth it, but I don't trust my ability to know when those moments are happening and it would raise my overall believability if I was found out.

Comment author: Squark 06 April 2015 07:19:34PM 1 point [-]

Knowing about the placebo effect doesn't stop the placebo effect from kicking in.

Especially if you know that knowing about the placebo effect doesn't stop the placebo effect from kicking in.

Comment author: DanielLC 04 April 2015 03:50:09AM 0 points [-]

I'd say that there are times when it's worth having comforting lies, but you can't figure out when if you're under the effect of comforting lies, so you should follow the strategy of never listening to comforting lies.