D&D and the rising pandemic

[Umbran]

So what brings this about more in some people than others?

So, as I understand it, it isn't really that some people are more vulnerable to it than others - as you say, everyone is. What we are seeing is many people struck by it on the same topic.

...I have changed my mind about many significant things over the years, and it has not caused even a minor identity crisis for me. Is there a root cause or other signs that signals this tendency?

The first question to ask is how deeply those things really mattered to you. The second question is how many other things were linked to it that also really mattered to you. The third is how many decisions have you made based on those items that you'd regret if you change your mind.

Like, if you were a dedicated iPhone person for years, you might resist the idea that Android phones are better. And, sure, you're bought into the Apple sphere of influence on many apps and services, and changing would be a hassle. But, you know, changing just means a different phone, different apps. There's no real consequence for your prior choice, or changing. So, you might just change your mind, and find Android to be better.

But, if you've been listening to Some News for six years, and they told you covid was a hoax and to not get vaxxed. They also told you a lot of other things, though, that you bought into. And, well, if you came to change your mind, that probably means that some of your voting choices actually hurt people who didn't deserve it....

What's easier at that point - Changing your mind, or sticking your fingers in your ears and loudly singing, "LALALALALA! I AM NOT LISTENING!!!1!"?

 

[Umbran]

Fear. One group of people test high for it. it shows in their politics and the kind of things they support.

My understanding is there's actually another thing they test high for - disgust. It is the emotion of safety. Disgust keeps you away from spoiled food and disease. It also keeps your social in-group in line. When you misbehave, and your social group turns their back on you, they aren't scared of you - they are disgusted with you.

When you hear someone saying that some out-group is dirty, diseased, or sexually perverted, that's not fear talking, that's disgust.

 

[Janx]

My understanding is there's actually another thing they test high for - disgust. It is the emotion of safety. Disgust keeps you away from spoiled food and disease. It also keeps your social in-group in line. When you misbehave, and your social group turns their back on you, they aren't scared of you - they are disgusted with you.

When you hear someone saying that some out-group is dirty, diseased, or sexually perverted, that's not fear talking, that's disgust.

good point, though I think fear can be traced back in there.

groups that practice shaming or shunning, are in effect using fear. You don't go against the group or you'll be out. That's scary.

It's just as easy also to disguise fear as disgust. Ex. all those strongly homophobic ranters who later turn out to be gay. It's an overcompensating mechanism.

Disgust strikes me as a form of false bravado. In the Covid conversation, these people are calling anyone who urged caution, masking, vaccination cowards. When in fact, it was THEY who were afraid, and in fact fear was used to incite them. Fear of losing rights, as if it's an actual slippery slope to go from wearing a mask to not being able to read the bible. Fear is embedded in all the memes that built this up.

 

[Umbran]

It's just as easy also to disguise fear as disgust.

In the eyes of a duffer, yes. Real human behavior experts can tell the difference.

Disgust strikes me as a form of false bravado.

It really isn't. False bravado does not make you throw up at the thought of eating something with worms in it.

 

[Garthanos]

We of Highlands descent have a pretty simple way of handling this; we start by admitting that our ancestors were recalcitrant horse and cattle thieves, then move on from there. Doesn't work for everyone, but it helps overall

My father of Scottish descent also went with the horse thief angle but looking back they were a major sept of the Skene Clan centered near Amberdene and our name is even now on air ports.

 

[J.Quondam]

good point, though I think fear can be traced back in there.

groups that practice shaming or shunning, are in effect using fear. You don't go against the group or you'll be out. That's scary.

I think this counts for a lot of it, especially in enclaves where the belief is widespread among the population, as is in a lot of rural areas.

Even if someone might be otherwise equipped to confront reality and reject an untrue belief, they might be considerably less likely to do so if their family, neighbors, coworkers, church groups, etc, all profess that same belief. In a small, insular locale where political affiliation might run to 80% or 90% or even more, the risk of ostracization is a terrifying prospect. Heck some people are freaked out just by getting unliked on FB.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Like, if you were a dedicated iPhone person for years, you might resist the idea that Android phones are better. And, sure, you're bought into the Apple sphere of influence on many apps and services, and changing would be a hassle. But, you know, changing just means a different phone, different apps. There's no real consequence for your prior choice, or changing. So, you might just change your mind, and find Android to be better.

The number of logical fallacies to that kind of thinking are adding up - Now you've got the Sunk Cost Fallacy to go with Occam and Hanlon's Razors (discussed previously).

 

[Garthanos]

My understanding is there's actually another thing they test high for - disgust. It is the emotion of safety. Disgust keeps you away from spoiled food and disease. It also keeps your social in-group in line. When you misbehave, and your social group turns their back on you, they aren't scared of you - they are disgusted with you.

When you hear someone saying that some out-group is dirty, diseased, or sexually perverted, that's not fear talking, that's disgust.

They have done studies on that difference in how easily someone is disgusted vs political leaning and discovered they can take rotten meat pictures and use neural scans with like 95 percent accuracy what group they are likely to profess.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They have done studies on that difference in how easily someone is disgusted vs political leaning and discovered they can take rotten meat pictures and use neural scans with like 95 percent accuracy what group they are likely to profess.

That IS interesting.

 

[Garthanos]

That IS interesting.

I take it as implying a physiological difference (but that is probably a hypothesis awaiting a "how"... aka not real solid science lol)