This is not a court of law, no proof required—“it looks like” is often sufficient, if only for direct questions which will put you on the spot.
Well, yes, but are they really going to jump right to “it looks like” without any prior evidence? That seems like majorprivileging the hypothesis. I mean, if you weren’t already primed by this conversation, would you automatically think “They might be lying about being unconvinced” if someone starts saying something skeptical about, say, cryonics? The only way I could see that happening is if the other person lets something slip, and when the topic in question is your own mental state, it doesn’t sound too hard to keep the fact that you already believe something concealed. It’s just like passing the Ideological Turing Test, in a way.
but are they really going to jump right to “it looks like” without any prior evidence?
Humans, in particular neurotypical humans, are pretty good at picking up clues (e.g. nonverbal) that something in a social situation is not quite on the up-and-up. That doesn’t necessarily rise to the conscious level of a verbalized thought “They might be lying...”, but manifests itself as a discomfort and unease.
it doesn’t sound too hard
It’s certainly possible and is easy for a certain type of people. I expect it to be not so easy for a different type of people, like ones who tend to hang out at LW… You need not just conceal your mental state, you need to actively pretend to have a different mental state.
Hm. I don’t know. I think it’s true when comparing a face-to-face conversation with an online one, but I have no idea whether that can be extended to a general rule.
Well, yes, but are they really going to jump right to “it looks like” without any prior evidence? That seems like major privileging the hypothesis. I mean, if you weren’t already primed by this conversation, would you automatically think “They might be lying about being unconvinced” if someone starts saying something skeptical about, say, cryonics? The only way I could see that happening is if the other person lets something slip, and when the topic in question is your own mental state, it doesn’t sound too hard to keep the fact that you already believe something concealed. It’s just like passing the Ideological Turing Test, in a way.
Humans, in particular neurotypical humans, are pretty good at picking up clues (e.g. nonverbal) that something in a social situation is not quite on the up-and-up. That doesn’t necessarily rise to the conscious level of a verbalized thought “They might be lying...”, but manifests itself as a discomfort and unease.
It’s certainly possible and is easy for a certain type of people. I expect it to be not so easy for a different type of people, like ones who tend to hang out at LW… You need not just conceal your mental state, you need to actively pretend to have a different mental state.
Fair enough. How about online discourse, then? I doubt you’d be able to pick up much nonverbal content there.
It is much easier to pretend online, but it’s also harder to convince somebody of something.
Would you say the difficulty of convincing someone scales proportionally with the ease of pretending?
Hm. I don’t know. I think it’s true when comparing a face-to-face conversation with an online one, but I have no idea whether that can be extended to a general rule.