A banal one is that misinforming takes effort and not informing saves effort.
That’s an important distinction. In both scenarios, the Carpenter suffers the same disutility, but the utility for Walrus is higher for “secret” than for “lies” if his utility function values saving effort. Perhaps that’s the reason we don’t feel morally obligated to walk the streets all day yelling correct information at people even though many of them are uninformed.
However, this rationalization breaks down in a scenario where it takes more effort to keep a secret than to share it (such as an interrogation), although I assume our intuitions regarding such a scenario would likewise change.
I’m glad I took the time to read all the way to the bottom because this is exactly what I wanted to point out.
If the Carpenter must act to misinform, then the Carpenter is busy. If the Carpenter can withhold information effortlessly, then he is free to do something else. The opportunity cost of lying might account for some of the pro-omission rationalization.
Then again, we’re not surrounded by so many opportunities in the real world, are we?
But we might consider that this is specifically a conversation about revealing painful truths. Like in a world where the walrus really would be hurt if he found out pigs had wings. Let’s say a person can only tell so many painful truths before they lose the ability to affect an individual (or any individual in the same network). If you go around explaining to all your friends how each of them is less than perfect, they might end your friendship (or at least ignore you). So the Carpenter might realize he wants to save his painful truth for a more important truth where the revelation will be important enough to him to offset the change in their relationship.
That’s an important distinction. In both scenarios, the Carpenter suffers the same disutility, but the utility for Walrus is higher for “secret” than for “lies” if his utility function values saving effort. Perhaps that’s the reason we don’t feel morally obligated to walk the streets all day yelling correct information at people even though many of them are uninformed.
However, this rationalization breaks down in a scenario where it takes more effort to keep a secret than to share it (such as an interrogation), although I assume our intuitions regarding such a scenario would likewise change.
I’m glad I took the time to read all the way to the bottom because this is exactly what I wanted to point out.
If the Carpenter must act to misinform, then the Carpenter is busy. If the Carpenter can withhold information effortlessly, then he is free to do something else. The opportunity cost of lying might account for some of the pro-omission rationalization.
Then again, we’re not surrounded by so many opportunities in the real world, are we?
But we might consider that this is specifically a conversation about revealing painful truths. Like in a world where the walrus really would be hurt if he found out pigs had wings. Let’s say a person can only tell so many painful truths before they lose the ability to affect an individual (or any individual in the same network). If you go around explaining to all your friends how each of them is less than perfect, they might end your friendship (or at least ignore you). So the Carpenter might realize he wants to save his painful truth for a more important truth where the revelation will be important enough to him to offset the change in their relationship.