To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

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Natalie
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To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Natalie »

To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

What are your thoughts?
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Atreyu
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Atreyu »

Well, all of our perception and cognition is filtered, molded, and shaped by what you call our "egocentric biases". As an analogy, we could say that the information we get from the world around us is like the 0s and 1s coming into a computer via an outside source. And our "egocentric biases" would be the particular software which then converts the binary data into video and audio.

So you could change the software and get a completely different result, even though the raw binary data coming in remains the same...
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Eduk »

How are egocentric biases different from biases?
Unknown means unknown.
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LuckyR
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by LuckyR »

Everyone has biases, but a few know this and can compensate for them, thus appearing to an observer to be without bias.
"As usual... it depends."
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Karpel Tunnel »

LuckyR wrote: April 1st, 2018, 1:49 am Everyone has biases, but a few know this and can compensate for them, thus appearing to an observer to be without bias.
Perhaps in some laboratory type situations, but in most cases some group will think we are biased - since they are biased. Observers are biased. Or maybe they are not. But then how do we know the observers who said we appeared to be or appeared not to be is biased or not?
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calm-realm
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by calm-realm »

Isn't the best way to go for this "critical thinking"? Stick to the facts, use logic, avoid fallacies...
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Karpel Tunnel »

calm-realm wrote: April 18th, 2018, 4:19 am Isn't the best way to go for this "critical thinking"? Stick to the facts, use logic, avoid fallacies...
Those are all good heuristics, however...
1) what seem to be facts may not be
2) logic is dependent on ontology and facts - for example logical analyses will always be based - unless they are basically mathematical - on correct ideas about reality. All sorts of things have been logically dismissed when phenomena 'should' be impossible given current models. Since we are always in the middle, working with models that may have problems, our sense of what is not logical - or really what we can conclude based on premises we think are true - may be wrong. The other person, with different experiences and/or better intuition, may be onto something we, in confidence dismiss based on logic.
3) Three is the big thing of experience shifting what one can know.
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Alias »

Natalie wrote: March 27th, 2018, 6:59 pm To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

What are your thoughts?
It largely depends on what you mean by "egocentric".
If it means "concern for one's own survival and welfare", then all information is automatically sorted according to whether it is useful or not.
Non-useful information is then classified according its utility - from potentially important to trivial. The more likely it is to benefit us, the closer attention we pay to verifying and storing it; the more likely to harm, the more urgently we seek corroborative or refuting evidence.
As for trivia, it's as easy to accept as to dismiss without examination - it simply doesn't matter.
The degree of trust or credence doesn't depend on egocentricity; it depends on our previous experience of, or association with, various sources of information.
Of course we prefer to believe good news, but given experience, the longer we live, the more credible we find bad news.
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Sy Borg
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Re: To what extent do egocentric biases influence the information we trust?

Post by Sy Borg »

It helps if one is more curious than in need of validation.

I wonder if general AI can overcome the egocentric biases that one would expect to lie in their initial core programming? Would the initial flaw be amplified as AI builds ever more sophisticated AI or perhaps they will find and fix the issue?
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