To illustrate with an hypothetical example: If we suddenly found out that mobile phone frequencies destroy the planet …
I find that phenomena like this are almost entirely pointless to illustrate with hypothetical examples, and much more fruitful to instead illustrate with actual examples.
Note, however, that if you do this, you may get responses protesting that actually, your supposed “actual examples” are not, in fact, examples of your claimed phenomenon. This, of course, is very much a feature, and not at all a bug—as it is quite possible that the phenomenon you thought was real, in fact… isn’t. In the latter case, what you would expect is precisely that all your attempts to provide actual examples would be met with skepticism and protest.
I’m not sure I get your meaning. You didn’t focus on actual examples… because you don’t want to find out if the phenomenon you’re describing is actually real or not? (But you obviously should want to find this out—that is what we’re doing here, right?)
I mean, if what you’re describing isn’t a real thing, then this whole conversation is moot, isn’t it?
I’m saying it’s out of scope, meaning it’s not what this post is about.
It’s about a phenomenon that happens in lots of different situations and topics. I’m trying to generalize it, abstract it, and understand it.
A simple example:
Family meeting. Mother says: “The electric bill is getting expensive. Please mind your use of energy. Don’t leave lights on when unnecessary. Use the Air Conditioner at reasonable temperatures. Etc.”
Then one of the sons thinks: “Why should I make any personal changes or sacrifices? I barely use electricity, the ones wasting it are the others. The expensive bill is their fault. So unless they make a change, my sacrifice won’t even make a dent. No point in doing it.”
That’s the phenomenon I’m talking about. Aside from specific instances.
I find that phenomena like this are almost entirely pointless to illustrate with hypothetical examples, and much more fruitful to instead illustrate with actual examples.
Note, however, that if you do this, you may get responses protesting that actually, your supposed “actual examples” are not, in fact, examples of your claimed phenomenon. This, of course, is very much a feature, and not at all a bug—as it is quite possible that the phenomenon you thought was real, in fact… isn’t. In the latter case, what you would expect is precisely that all your attempts to provide actual examples would be met with skepticism and protest.
That’s why I didn’t focus on actual examples, and only briefly mentioned a couple in the begginning. :P
I’m more interested in the psychological phenomenon, rather than specific instances in real life, or wether its occurrence is a good or a bad thing.
e.g. Maybe it makes sense to not cooperate. I don’t know. That’s out of scope here.
I’m not sure I get your meaning. You didn’t focus on actual examples… because you don’t want to find out if the phenomenon you’re describing is actually real or not? (But you obviously should want to find this out—that is what we’re doing here, right?)
I mean, if what you’re describing isn’t a real thing, then this whole conversation is moot, isn’t it?
I’m saying it’s out of scope, meaning it’s not what this post is about.
It’s about a phenomenon that happens in lots of different situations and topics. I’m trying to generalize it, abstract it, and understand it.
A simple example:
Family meeting. Mother says: “The electric bill is getting expensive. Please mind your use of energy. Don’t leave lights on when unnecessary. Use the Air Conditioner at reasonable temperatures. Etc.”
Then one of the sons thinks: “Why should I make any personal changes or sacrifices? I barely use electricity, the ones wasting it are the others. The expensive bill is their fault. So unless they make a change, my sacrifice won’t even make a dent. No point in doing it.”
That’s the phenomenon I’m talking about. Aside from specific instances.