One reason people often disagree about what's immoral is that they have different values. But there's another important reason that I think few are aware of: there are at least four different kinds of moral evaluations of behavior, and it's easy to conflate them. I argue that only one of these categories is actually sufficient grounds for judging an *action* as immoral, despite many people using the other categories to evaluate the morality of actions. I think they are making a subtle (and comm...
More
social learning
A major (overlooked) reason why smart people fall for stupid things
Why do smart people fall for stupid things? Here is what I think is an important part of the answer that almost never gets discussed.
It's easy to look around at the stupid seeming things that other people believe (e.g., people who join harmful cults, get scammed by a con artist, become vocal evangelists for a placebo treatment, or jump on the hype train of some outrageous new bubble) and wonder: "How on earth can they be so dumb?"
The answer, a lot of times, is simply the trust they have...
More
Human behavior makes more sense when you understand “Anchor Beliefs”
There's an important type of belief most of us have, which we call "Anchor Beliefs." These beliefs are, by definition, those beliefs we hold that are almost impossible to change. To the believer, an Anchor Belief doesn't feel like a mere belief - it feels like an undeniable truth. These beliefs are often too deeply rooted to change, and the cost of giving them up may be extremely high (e.g., questioning the belief might cause you to lose your family, friends, livelihood, or your understand...
More
On Philosophical Disorders
I'd like to propose a new term: "philosophical disorder."
It's when someone has a persistent belief that's both highly inaccurate and substantially harmful. Here are some examples:
A false belief that you are unlovableBeing convinced that God punishes pre-marital with deathBelieving that "no usually means yes" in sexual encounters
Whereas a psychological disorder consists of emotions, thoughts, and personality traits creating distress or impairment, many WITHOUT psychological challenge...
More