10 Comments

Is this far-mode? Seems like telling the truth (ie. you're obese) signals rudeness or discomfort to your friend, and thus for example we find it much more useful for our own goals to tell idealistic things (ie. excercise is great). Privately we know the truth. In politics however people might really have wrong beliefs without realizing it on any level.

In any case, its just moral hazard.

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Excellent, thank you :)

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Can not say why. Just a feeling. Besides this post was not about personal choice, was it?

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Saying that far mode functions to enable hypocrisy doesn't say that this is its only function.

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There's an ongoing discussion at Less Wrong (http://lesswrong.com/lw/8q8... in which, at least broadly, goal setting lines up with far mental processes, whereas "urges" are near. This suggests that far thinking serves a more important function than hypocrisy, as we pretty obviously can't function at all effectively without goals. I wonder if Hanson agrees with this alignment.

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Playing Devil's Advocate or just not being conscientious/strategic enough to achieve one's own far-mode goals?

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Far Idealism Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy or just playing devil's advocate?

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Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117, 440-463.

Liberman, N. & Trope, Y. (2008). The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science, 322, 1201-1205.

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Which is why it's easier to give advice than to follow advice.

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If I were to want to understand the basics of what research says about construal level theory, what are some good literature reviews and/or books on the topic?

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