The haunted rationalist is probably an example of a physiological response tied to a shared cultural delusion. In strange places, when we are alone, we often can feel nervous or fearful. I remember feeling this way when I was alone in our church growing up, or when I was alone in our own house for the first time as a teenager.
There’s probably a physiological reason for this. Perhaps we produce more adrenaline when left alone after a period of close cohabitation with others. This would be a useful evolutionary trait allowing us to be more aware of our surroundings.
Tie this initial physiological reaction in with “shared cultural delusions” such as ghosts and you may get a negative feedback loop going. Small amount of additional adrenaline produced leads our body to be more attuned to “fight or flight” situations. We hear unfamiliar noise. Our minds involuntarily tie in shared cultural delusion, and our bodies produce more adrenaline. Before you know it, you’re running out of the mansion screaming.
In hotels, perhaps two things dampen this. 1) We don’t feel alone. We know other humans are nearby. 2) We can easily explain unfamiliar noises, cutting out feedback loop. Despite this, people have much harder times sleeping in hotel rooms than at home. This may be evidence of the initial physiological reaction I mentioned before.
Interestingly enough, there’s another area that this occurs. Alien abductions and sleep paralysis. See http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~marshall/delusion.htm .
Hope this helps the discussion.
David
I don’t think that the “effort” distinction is banal at all.
The “lying” scenario provides us with much more information about the “liar”, than the “keeping secrets” scenario provides us about the “secret keeper”. Let me go into this in more detail.
An individual assumes that others have mental states, but that individual has no direct access to those mental states. An individual can only infer mental states through the physical actions of another.
For now, let’s assume that an individual who can more accurately infer others mental states from their actions will be “happier” or “more successful” than an individual who cannot.
So, given this assumption, every individual has an incentive to constantly determine others mental states, generalize this into some mental stance, and relate that mental state and mental stance back to the individual.
With these brief preliminaries out of the way, let’s examine “lying” vs “secrets”.
When a person gives you misinformation, the potential liar takes an active role in trying to affect you negatively. The range of potential mental states and mental stances from this information is relatively small. The person can have a mental stance of “looking out for your best interests” (let’s call this mental stance “friendliness”) and be mistaken, or the person can have a mental stance of “trying to manipulate you” and be lying. The pathway to determine whether a person is “mistaken” or “lying” is relatively straightforward (compared to secrets), and if we can determine “lying” we can take action to change our relationship with the other.
When a person withholds information that may be helpful; however, we have a much stickier situation. The range of potential mental states is much broader in this situation. The person may be unsure of the accuracy of the information. The person may be unsure of the efficacy of the information to you. The person may be unsure of your willingness to receive this information. In other words, there are many reasons a person may refrain from giving you potentially helpful information and still have a mental stance of “friendliness”.
And it would be hard to prove that the withholder of information actually has a mental stance of “eneminess”.
Thus, when someone withholds information, our line of inquiry and our course of actions are far less clear than when a person gives us misinformation.
So, in summary, the asymmetry between the two situations is an asymmetry of information. The fact than an individual takes an effort to “lie” to us give us a great deal more information about that individual’s mental stance towards us. The person who “keeps a secret” on the other hand, has not given us information about their mental stance towards us.
Hope this helps provoke discussion.
David