One idea: make a list of situations in which you trade off against 2+ qualities, notice if you’ve formed a collider bias, and explain to yourself what’s going on. I’ll try two:
Food can be tasty and healthy. Why is food that’s tasty so often unhealthy, and vice versa? Insofar as the collider effect is the explanation, then it’s because I have a tastiness + healthiness threshold. Foods don’t need to be as tasty if they’re healthy enough, and they don’t need to be as healthy if they’re tasty enough. Also, there’s some set of foods that simply aren’t tasty + healthy enough to eat, like American cheese, out-of-season tomatoes, and Chips Ahoy.
Vacations can be relaxing and interesting. Why are interesting vacations so often stressful, and relaxing vacations so often boring? The collider effect strikes again! I don’t want to go on vacations that are neither relaxing nor interesting, such as a trip to Cancun or Ibiza.
Food can have more virtues. It can be cheap, easy to prepare, and different from what I’ve eaten recently. Weirdly enough, this means that the more potential virtues something has, the more likely you’re going to consume something that entirely lacks a certain virtue. If I go to a single-price restaurant, where price, ease of preparation, and variety are held constant, tastiness and healthiness are the only ways I can make a selection and will be more important. By contrast, if I’m at home, how tasty and healthy the meal is can more often take a back seat to these other factors.
However, I’d also note that the reason we may not think too often about “collider bias” may be that most things are correlated. Price correlates with all the other virtues in just about everything you can consume. Excitement and stress seem likely to be correlated.
One idea: make a list of situations in which you trade off against 2+ qualities, notice if you’ve formed a collider bias, and explain to yourself what’s going on. I’ll try two:
Food can be tasty and healthy. Why is food that’s tasty so often unhealthy, and vice versa? Insofar as the collider effect is the explanation, then it’s because I have a tastiness + healthiness threshold. Foods don’t need to be as tasty if they’re healthy enough, and they don’t need to be as healthy if they’re tasty enough. Also, there’s some set of foods that simply aren’t tasty + healthy enough to eat, like American cheese, out-of-season tomatoes, and Chips Ahoy.
Vacations can be relaxing and interesting. Why are interesting vacations so often stressful, and relaxing vacations so often boring? The collider effect strikes again! I don’t want to go on vacations that are neither relaxing nor interesting, such as a trip to Cancun or Ibiza.
Food can have more virtues. It can be cheap, easy to prepare, and different from what I’ve eaten recently. Weirdly enough, this means that the more potential virtues something has, the more likely you’re going to consume something that entirely lacks a certain virtue. If I go to a single-price restaurant, where price, ease of preparation, and variety are held constant, tastiness and healthiness are the only ways I can make a selection and will be more important. By contrast, if I’m at home, how tasty and healthy the meal is can more often take a back seat to these other factors.
However, I’d also note that the reason we may not think too often about “collider bias” may be that most things are correlated. Price correlates with all the other virtues in just about everything you can consume. Excitement and stress seem likely to be correlated.