Schrodinger's Zebra
And a dandelion dies in the wind
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2018
- Messages
- 2,998
I was thinking about this yesterday and how this, shall we say, 'no-debate' tactic seems to common in certain areas of belief.
It's not only the case that it simply doesn't work, in terms of changing anyone's mind; it literally has the opposite effect. People perceive see this kind of forcing as diminishing their own agency, so oppose it on principle (the backfire effect).
People understand this on an intuitive level - e.g. this is a trope in cartoons, the old 'Loony Tunes' staple of the protagonists arguing back and forth "Yes it is/no it isn't" really fast, then one character flips their answer and this flips the other's.
So in general people understand this approach doesn't actually work. If anything it makes 'conversion' less likely.
So I kinda conclude that, subconsciously at least, that the 'screaming in your face' people are just virtue signalling. It's not really important to them to change minds or views, only to show that they are ethically superior (so are 'entitled' to use force).
Well said.
Mr Zebra and I are both vegetarian (me since birth) but the other day, upon hearing of another utter waste of perfectly good produce poured all over the floor of some supermarket somewhere I remarked that it makes me feel like buying some meat, just to spite them, even though we wouldn't eat it (we'd probably stick it in one of those food bank trolleys near the entrance).