You’re right in noticing that public belief signaling is somewhat in conflict with private truth-seeking. Like it or not, we evaluate people’s competency based on their stated beliefs, which tend to cluster. Combine this with the fact that deviations from common clusters carry more information than membership in those clusters, and you get today’s world.
I think you point out the reasons that it can be correct to judge people more harshly for weirder beliefs (as in less common, not as in less plausible). Someone claiming a common belief might be doing so just to pander to the masses, while someone claiming a weird belief probably actually believes it deeply.
You’re right in noticing that public belief signaling is somewhat in conflict with private truth-seeking. Like it or not, we evaluate people’s competency based on their stated beliefs, which tend to cluster. Combine this with the fact that deviations from common clusters carry more information than membership in those clusters, and you get today’s world.
I think you point out the reasons that it can be correct to judge people more harshly for weirder beliefs (as in less common, not as in less plausible). Someone claiming a common belief might be doing so just to pander to the masses, while someone claiming a weird belief probably actually believes it deeply.