irritating people when discussing the topic is a great way to get someone to dig into a position really hard (whether or not that position is correct).
That irritation can be performed any way you like. The most common is insinuating that they’re stupid, but making invalid meme arguments and otherwise misunderstanding the position or arguments for the position will serve quite well, too.
I think this follows from the strength and insidious nature of motivated reasoning. It’s often mistaken for confirmation bias, but it’s actually a much more important effect because it drives polarization in public discussion.
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this, but doing it justice would take too much time. I think I need to just write a brief incomplete one.
I don’t think being irritating in general is enough. I think it’s specifically the feeling that everyone who has disagreed with you has been wrong about their disagreement that creates a very powerful sense of feeling like you must be onto something.
Really!? Okay, I’ll have to really present the argument when I write that post.
I do agree with your logic for why opponents misunderstanding the argument would make people sure they’re right, by general association. It’s a separate factor from the irritation, so I think I mis-statedit as a subset (although part of it seems to be; it’s irritating to have people repeatedly mis-characterize your position).
It seems pretty apparent to me when I watch people have discussions/arguments that their irritation/anger makes them dig in on their position. It seems to follow from evolutionary psychology: if you make me angry, my brain reacts like we’re in a fight. I now want to win that fight, so I need to prove you wrong. Believing any of your arguments or understating mine would lead to losing the fight I feel I’m in.
This isn’t usually how motivated reasoning is discussed, so I guess it does really take some careful explanation. It seems intuitive and obvious to me after holding this theory for years, but that could be my own motivated reasoning...
I think this is a subset of:
irritating people when discussing the topic is a great way to get someone to dig into a position really hard (whether or not that position is correct).
That irritation can be performed any way you like. The most common is insinuating that they’re stupid, but making invalid meme arguments and otherwise misunderstanding the position or arguments for the position will serve quite well, too.
I think this follows from the strength and insidious nature of motivated reasoning. It’s often mistaken for confirmation bias, but it’s actually a much more important effect because it drives polarization in public discussion.
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this, but doing it justice would take too much time. I think I need to just write a brief incomplete one.
I don’t think being irritating in general is enough. I think it’s specifically the feeling that everyone who has disagreed with you has been wrong about their disagreement that creates a very powerful sense of feeling like you must be onto something.
Really!? Okay, I’ll have to really present the argument when I write that post.
I do agree with your logic for why opponents misunderstanding the argument would make people sure they’re right, by general association. It’s a separate factor from the irritation, so I think I mis-statedit as a subset (although part of it seems to be; it’s irritating to have people repeatedly mis-characterize your position).
It seems pretty apparent to me when I watch people have discussions/arguments that their irritation/anger makes them dig in on their position. It seems to follow from evolutionary psychology: if you make me angry, my brain reacts like we’re in a fight. I now want to win that fight, so I need to prove you wrong. Believing any of your arguments or understating mine would lead to losing the fight I feel I’m in.
This isn’t usually how motivated reasoning is discussed, so I guess it does really take some careful explanation. It seems intuitive and obvious to me after holding this theory for years, but that could be my own motivated reasoning...