One interesting point is that arguments that people use internally with their own group are more likely to be truthful than arguments that people use in a public-facing context. If you suspect people might be advancing false arguments, it can be useful to do as Denton did and investigate their own internal communications as well as the outward-facing arguments. That said, I think these scenarios are comparatively rare.
This is the point at which “ingroup-outgroup” has to get more nuanced. Groups have sub-groups, and it’s absolutely NOT the case the the arguments used “internally” are all that “truthful”. There’s definitely a tendency to use DIFFERENT arguments with different groups (in the example, “God says” with one group and “no way to avoid bad incentives” with another), but the actual true reason may well be “it’s icky”. Or rather, a mix of all of the given reasons—most of the time people (ingroup or out-) don’t actually think they’re lying when they use different reasons for a demanded/recommended policy, just that they’re focusing on different valid elements of their argument.
One interesting point is that arguments that people use internally with their own group are more likely to be truthful than arguments that people use in a public-facing context. If you suspect people might be advancing false arguments, it can be useful to do as Denton did and investigate their own internal communications as well as the outward-facing arguments. That said, I think these scenarios are comparatively rare.
This is the point at which “ingroup-outgroup” has to get more nuanced. Groups have sub-groups, and it’s absolutely NOT the case the the arguments used “internally” are all that “truthful”. There’s definitely a tendency to use DIFFERENT arguments with different groups (in the example, “God says” with one group and “no way to avoid bad incentives” with another), but the actual true reason may well be “it’s icky”. Or rather, a mix of all of the given reasons—most of the time people (ingroup or out-) don’t actually think they’re lying when they use different reasons for a demanded/recommended policy, just that they’re focusing on different valid elements of their argument.