Another curious thing about trust.
The median LW reader is probably better informed about a great many things than their immediate family, friends from their home town.
Yet, I suspect you will agree, family members almost never defer to them epistemically.
This seems to be a general phenomenon—many people could plausibly be epistemically better off by finding and deferring to their epistemic superiors.
This doesn’t need to entail blank-acceptance of any claim that somebody that seems smarter / better informed on a topic—just putting effort in finding who are the best informed on certain domains and comparing them to other would-be experts. In many cases this would be much more effective than trying to figure out things oneself.
People generally seem not so interested in finding and comparing experts.
Society has created institutions to combat this curious phenomenon.
The magic of credentialism endows a select group of (hopefully) relatively highly informed people with a magic paper that compells peasants to submit to the scholar-clergy.
Another curious thing about trust. The median LW reader is probably better informed about a great many things than their immediate family, friends from their home town. Yet, I suspect you will agree, family members almost never defer to them epistemically.
This seems to be a general phenomenon—many people could plausibly be epistemically better off by finding and deferring to their epistemic superiors. This doesn’t need to entail blank-acceptance of any claim that somebody that seems smarter / better informed on a topic—just putting effort in finding who are the best informed on certain domains and comparing them to other would-be experts. In many cases this would be much more effective than trying to figure out things oneself. People generally seem not so interested in finding and comparing experts.
Society has created institutions to combat this curious phenomenon. The magic of credentialism endows a select group of (hopefully) relatively highly informed people with a magic paper that compells peasants to submit to the scholar-clergy.