Comments on: Improved Cores Unwanted

By: Recent Reading: Aggression, Retaliation, Memories, Stories, Attraction, Identity, Social Norms, Neural Avalanches « Beyond Rivalry

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:39:52 +0000

[...] Enhancement of Core Identity: The results of a (2-yr-old) study seem to show that “the more people considered a feature [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:22:21 +0000

My follow-up post here explains (in more detail than my above comment) why I think this post is misleading...

By: techreseller

techreseller — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:36:56 +0000

I consider my ranking in empathy and kindness to be well below average. And I have no desire to increase my kindness and empathy. Perhaps the survey indicates exactly what people what to enhance and that which people do not want to enhance. The only items I would flip on this list are motivation and rote memory. Rote memory is declining in value while motivation will never decline in value.

By: Sebastian H

Sebastian H — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:46:49 +0000

Interesting, I suppose it makes sense that people feel weird about changing things that make up the core of their personality (or what they perceive as the core).

In a similar vein, I’d actually like to increase my self control and motivation. Are there practical ways to go about that as an adult?

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:05:27 +0000

To make sense of this, we’d need some way to understand what are “natural” versus “artificial” ways to improve our features.

By: Wenn wir uns nicht verbessern wollen « Erlebt

Wenn wir uns nicht verbessern wollen « Erlebt — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:31:24 +0000

[...] Blog-Post “Improved Cores Unwanted” by By Robin Hanson auf Overcomingbias berichtet über das Ergebnis einer Studie, die für [...]

By: Phil Goetz

Phil Goetz — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:50:03 +0000

The things at the top of the list are goal-oriented. The things at the bottom are not. This suggests to me that people want to achieve their goals. Not a shocker.

Increasing your kindness and empathy would hinder you from attaining any goals other than being kind and empathetic. Increasing your self-confidence could have more disadvantages than advantages, depending on where you start.

Note that the subjects were “young healthy individuals”, hence not likely to be worried about the things at the bottom of the list.

Also note that the researchers said that these were the results they expected to find:

In the studies that follow, we examine, for the first time, whether the well-documented
concern for the preservation of self-identity affects young healthy individuals’ willingness to
take drugs designed to improve their own social, emotional, and cognitive abilities. We expected
such individuals to share the misgivings of the President’s Council on Bioethics (2003, quoted
above), and to resist tampering with their own self-identities. Indeed, despite recognizing that
such enhancements would make life better, we expected people to be less willing to enhance
fundamental aspects of themselves.

Any study in which the researchers say that they expected to prove Bush’s Council on Bioethics right is highly suspect.

Also note that I miss the “preview” feature of this blog.

By: Jess RIedel

Jess RIedel — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:35:05 +0000

The only important thing is that many people might *think* that memory can be improved with less invasive techniques, and that therefore the survey isn’t measuring what it claims to measure.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:15:33 +0000

What justifies the assumption that kindness is an ability? I can see no reason to assume that too little kindness is worse than too much.

By: Etl World News | Assorted links

Etl World News | Assorted links — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:39:24 +0000

[...] 3. Few people want to improve their empathy. [...]