Perhaps not for society at large, but what about empirically-based intellectuals themselves? Do you think knowledge of innate sex differences leads to more or less sexism among them? I think it leads to less, although my evidence is wholly anecdotal.
There is another problem with avoiding dangerous knowledge. Remember the dragon in the garage? In order to make excuses ahead of time for missing evidence, the dragon proponent needs to have an accurate representation of reality somewhere in their heart-of-hearts. This leads to cognitive dissonance.
Return to the race/IQ example. Would you rather
know group X has a 10 points lower average IQ than group Y, and just deal with it by trying your best to correct for confirmation bias etc., OR
intentionally keep yourself ignorant, while feeling deep down that something is not right.
?
I suspect the second option is worse for your behaviour towards group X. It would still be difficult for a human to do, but I’d personally rather swallow the hard pill of a 10-point average IQ difference and consciously correct for my brain’s crappy heuristics, than feel queasy around group X in perpetuity because I know I’m lying to myself about them.
Perhaps not for society at large, but what about empirically-based intellectuals themselves? Do you think knowledge of innate sex differences leads to more or less sexism among them? I think it leads to less, although my evidence is wholly anecdotal.
There is another problem with avoiding dangerous knowledge. Remember the dragon in the garage? In order to make excuses ahead of time for missing evidence, the dragon proponent needs to have an accurate representation of reality somewhere in their heart-of-hearts. This leads to cognitive dissonance.
Return to the race/IQ example. Would you rather
know group X has a 10 points lower average IQ than group Y, and just deal with it by trying your best to correct for confirmation bias etc., OR
intentionally keep yourself ignorant, while feeling deep down that something is not right.
?
I suspect the second option is worse for your behaviour towards group X. It would still be difficult for a human to do, but I’d personally rather swallow the hard pill of a 10-point average IQ difference and consciously correct for my brain’s crappy heuristics, than feel queasy around group X in perpetuity because I know I’m lying to myself about them.