And I think the bias occurs when interacting with videos/photos/mirror reflections/etc. of yourself, not just the “first person” view.
My theory is that we have a evolutionary anti-bias that only works with the “fist person” view, that prevents us from disparaging our own looks in that case.
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Your proposed fix seems… not enough. Let’s think more about how to solve this.
(E.g. I know about some good effects from a “desanitizing” approach in similar areas, like judging your own voice recordings, maybe it could also be applied here.)
The solution described is designed only to counter the attentional bias caused by loss aversion.
If there are other causes contributing to a similar effect, I wouldn’t expect the included solution to address them also just by luck.
Is there any research on the “first person” view that you mention? As I’m no scientist, I’ve only dealt with the already firmly established findings like loss aversion.
Is there any research on the “first person” view that you mention? As I’m no scientist, I’ve only dealt with the already firmly established findings like loss aversion.
I do not know of any research on this directly. However, there is strong support for people’s reported opinions being influenced by sitting in front of a mirror. So I just do educated guesses from the tangentially related research.
I’ve only dealt with the already firmly established findings like loss aversion.
Yup—you are playing it safe. However, this does not satisfy my curiosity.
You quote negativity/loss aversion bias as an explanation, but do you think it is the most accurate explanation?
But what I’ve got in mind is: if someone were suddenly to acquire an extra 100 flaws, this would indeed be a loss; they would feel worse walking down the street as people glance at them, they would lose social status, people would judge them as less honest, kind, intelligent, etc.
So they are losing social status and they’re losing other people thinking well of their appearance, and like any other loss will tend to fear it more than they would value gains of equal size.
And that’s what people DO experience, in a less dramatic way. You could say, perhaps, that it’s because we have the ability to alter our appearance that the problem exists, because sometimes we look better than at other times, and we’ll tend to focus on the flaws that make the difference.
OK, here’s one example of something that is not covered: someone can feel that by focusing on their flaws, they get the benefit of putting more effort into presenting their best side, and improving their look. So they wouldn’t want to stop concentrating on the flaws.
I mean, there’s a lot of psychology/social pressures/doublethink/self-image/etc. issues around this. I anticipate that simply telling people”from now on, concentrate more on your positive sides!” does not solve the problem in most cases, and can even sound condescending (as if they didn’t already know that!).
Now, I might imagine, in that scenario, that they still self-perceive as less beautiful because of all the attention they’re giving their flaws.
But a side effect of no longer doing so and no longer self-perceiving negatively might be a decrease in their effectiveness in countering those flaws...
My prior is that most people in the situation described in the post wouldn’t have thought of this method as a way of resolving the tension they experience. What do you think?
My prior is that most people in the situation described in the post wouldn’t have thought of this method as a way of resolving the tension they experience.
OK, so I have different background assumptions: to me it looks like the simplest way to complete the pattern (“how improve my self-esteem?” → “think about your strong points”) conveniently established by countless self-help slogans etc.
And I think the bias occurs when interacting with videos/photos/mirror reflections/etc. of yourself, not just the “first person” view.
I wonder how people would react to the photos/videos of themselves if they wouldn’t know it’s themselves.
I admit such experiment could be difficult to arrange. But not impossible. Imagine filming people through hidden camera somewhere. Then… several weeks later… invite them to experiment where they will be shown videos of random people, and they have to quickly judge how attractive they are (e.g. by pressing a button). Show them a series of videos, including a short video of themselves.
The hypothesis in this article suggests that people would judge themselves as attractive if they wouldn’t know it’s themselves. (Also, this technique could be useful therapeutically.)
Another experiment: arrange for a group of people to live in an environment with no mirrors or other ways to see themselves, for a long time. Compare with people exposed to mirrors. Ask detailed questions about estimates of attractiveness, weak points, feelings of dissatisfaction, self-doubt, inferiority etc.
Yes, it’s a thing.
And I think the bias occurs when interacting with videos/photos/mirror reflections/etc. of yourself, not just the “first person” view.
My theory is that we have a evolutionary anti-bias that only works with the “fist person” view, that prevents us from disparaging our own looks in that case.
~~~~
Your proposed fix seems… not enough. Let’s think more about how to solve this.
(E.g. I know about some good effects from a “desanitizing” approach in similar areas, like judging your own voice recordings, maybe it could also be applied here.)
The solution described is designed only to counter the attentional bias caused by loss aversion.
If there are other causes contributing to a similar effect, I wouldn’t expect the included solution to address them also just by luck.
Is there any research on the “first person” view that you mention? As I’m no scientist, I’ve only dealt with the already firmly established findings like loss aversion.
I do not know of any research on this directly. However, there is strong support for people’s reported opinions being influenced by sitting in front of a mirror. So I just do educated guesses from the tangentially related research.
Yup—you are playing it safe. However, this does not satisfy my curiosity.
You quote negativity/loss aversion bias as an explanation, but do you think it is the most accurate explanation?
Hmm...I would be open to an alternative.
But what I’ve got in mind is: if someone were suddenly to acquire an extra 100 flaws, this would indeed be a loss; they would feel worse walking down the street as people glance at them, they would lose social status, people would judge them as less honest, kind, intelligent, etc.
So they are losing social status and they’re losing other people thinking well of their appearance, and like any other loss will tend to fear it more than they would value gains of equal size.
And that’s what people DO experience, in a less dramatic way. You could say, perhaps, that it’s because we have the ability to alter our appearance that the problem exists, because sometimes we look better than at other times, and we’ll tend to focus on the flaws that make the difference.
It seems like the proposed fix would resolve at least part of the issues. What parts do you think it will not resolve, so we can work on those?
OK, here’s one example of something that is not covered: someone can feel that by focusing on their flaws, they get the benefit of putting more effort into presenting their best side, and improving their look. So they wouldn’t want to stop concentrating on the flaws.
I mean, there’s a lot of psychology/social pressures/doublethink/self-image/etc. issues around this. I anticipate that simply telling people”from now on, concentrate more on your positive sides!” does not solve the problem in most cases, and can even sound condescending (as if they didn’t already know that!).
Mmm, good point!
Now, I might imagine, in that scenario, that they still self-perceive as less beautiful because of all the attention they’re giving their flaws.
But a side effect of no longer doing so and no longer self-perceiving negatively might be a decrease in their effectiveness in countering those flaws...
My prior is that most people in the situation described in the post wouldn’t have thought of this method as a way of resolving the tension they experience. What do you think?
OK, so I have different background assumptions: to me it looks like the simplest way to complete the pattern (“how improve my self-esteem?” → “think about your strong points”) conveniently established by countless self-help slogans etc.
My view is that people don’t think of having low self-esteem as a problem when judging their aesthetic appearance as inadequate.
I wonder how people would react to the photos/videos of themselves if they wouldn’t know it’s themselves.
I admit such experiment could be difficult to arrange. But not impossible. Imagine filming people through hidden camera somewhere. Then… several weeks later… invite them to experiment where they will be shown videos of random people, and they have to quickly judge how attractive they are (e.g. by pressing a button). Show them a series of videos, including a short video of themselves.
The hypothesis in this article suggests that people would judge themselves as attractive if they wouldn’t know it’s themselves. (Also, this technique could be useful therapeutically.)
Another experiment: arrange for a group of people to live in an environment with no mirrors or other ways to see themselves, for a long time. Compare with people exposed to mirrors. Ask detailed questions about estimates of attractiveness, weak points, feelings of dissatisfaction, self-doubt, inferiority etc.
But this is also hard to arrange.
There are probably people living somewhere in jungle without mirrors.
There might possibly be other differences between their lifestyle and ours besides the lack of mirrors.