However: I suspect people don’t really mean “is this a cult” when they say “is this a cult.” And they don’t mean “please give me reassurance of my own rationality” either.
Rather—and I’m introspecting here, so these intuitions might not generalize—it seems like “is this a cult” means “is this a really tricky system of self-supporting irrational beliefs?” Or at least that the question “is this a cult” could mean that, if we interpreted it charitably.
If that’s correct, it’s not a question about the behavior of the people involved, nor about the presence or absence of certain kinds of biases (directly) but about the way the beliefs interact. For example, one belief that a lot of cults encourage is the belief that outsiders who deny the belief are trying to persecute the cult. That belief obviously lends strength to attempts by humans to hold all the other beliefs, just as the other beliefs (e.g. that the beliefs were given by revelation) lend strength to the attempt to hold the persecution belief.
In more condensed language, with a different spin, I think what people are worried about is “If I append this group to my identity, will it cause people to dismiss my thoughts and arguments?”
If you tell most people you’re christian, it doesn’t cause them to tune you out immediately (except in certain subcultures) because christianity is an accepted influence on our culture. If you tell them you’re anticipating the singularity...well, all bets are off.
So I suspect most aren’t fearing being wrong, they’re fearing no longer being credible to the people they normally interact with.
That was a really good post.
However: I suspect people don’t really mean “is this a cult” when they say “is this a cult.” And they don’t mean “please give me reassurance of my own rationality” either.
Rather—and I’m introspecting here, so these intuitions might not generalize—it seems like “is this a cult” means “is this a really tricky system of self-supporting irrational beliefs?” Or at least that the question “is this a cult” could mean that, if we interpreted it charitably.
If that’s correct, it’s not a question about the behavior of the people involved, nor about the presence or absence of certain kinds of biases (directly) but about the way the beliefs interact. For example, one belief that a lot of cults encourage is the belief that outsiders who deny the belief are trying to persecute the cult. That belief obviously lends strength to attempts by humans to hold all the other beliefs, just as the other beliefs (e.g. that the beliefs were given by revelation) lend strength to the attempt to hold the persecution belief.
Just a random speculation I’d like to toss out.
In more condensed language, with a different spin, I think what people are worried about is “If I append this group to my identity, will it cause people to dismiss my thoughts and arguments?”
If you tell most people you’re christian, it doesn’t cause them to tune you out immediately (except in certain subcultures) because christianity is an accepted influence on our culture. If you tell them you’re anticipating the singularity...well, all bets are off.
So I suspect most aren’t fearing being wrong, they’re fearing no longer being credible to the people they normally interact with.