It would suggest it, but it’s not that strong evidence. Most people are okay with factory farming. Most people put little value on things they don’t consider themselves responsible for.
OTOH, in my experience at least, people become a lot less biased when it comes to themselves. Few people would want to be factory farmed ;)
Would you value ice cream independent of your ability to taste it?
Personally? No. But I can imagine a paperclipper that would gladly sacrifice it’s life to save the paperclip collection.
OTOH, in my experience at least, people become a lot less biased when it comes to themselves. Few people would want to be factory farmed ;)
Do they, or does their bias just change?
In my experience, people value themselves vastly more than they value other people. Ergo, if you replace them with someone else, they consider it a huge loss in utility.
It’s possible that rationality tends to bias you away from your natural impassiveness to large groups and other “far” situations. There’s a post on this, “Shut up and divide”. But there do seem to be genuine biases leading to underestimates of their suffering, not just knowing about it and not caring.
OTOH, in my experience at least, people become a lot less biased when it comes to themselves. Few people would want to be factory farmed ;)
Personally? No. But I can imagine a paperclipper that would gladly sacrifice it’s life to save the paperclip collection.
Do they, or does their bias just change?
In my experience, people value themselves vastly more than they value other people. Ergo, if you replace them with someone else, they consider it a huge loss in utility.
It’s possible that rationality tends to bias you away from your natural impassiveness to large groups and other “far” situations. There’s a post on this, “Shut up and divide”. But there do seem to be genuine biases leading to underestimates of their suffering, not just knowing about it and not caring.