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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Anti-novelty: If you decide to go to a different Mall, the chances that you'll step on a new-to-you species of snake, or inadvertently stray into the territory of a tribe you didn't know much about with no reason to like you are slim. It's an evolutionarily ridiculously safe world, but our fears haven't quite adapted to this yet (which is where alcohol comes in, for many.) For example, native peoples greatly feared the dark (risking for occasional raids) and rarely ventured into it. Too many mishaps awaited them, and GPS wasn't widely available. In those areas where risk is higher now (sexual experimentation arguably) our bias appears to be pro-novelty (relative to the actual risk.)

As for childhood pro-novelty, you almost always have a parent who's making sure you don't kill yourself in those early years. (Although I've known one case where poor parenting resulted in tragedy.)

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Patri says: "I am skeptical of an explanation for adult anti-novelty that does not also explain childhood pro-novelty."

In turn, I am a little sceptical of the assumption which says childhood is pro-novelty. As many a school teacher / parent will tell you, there is nothing so conservative as a young boy.

If I take your assumption about inquisitive young children as true, might it not be something to do with risk / reward ratio? Make a mistake as a child, and bar breaking an arm etc, the downside of any action is minimised by parental protection - which is not there when you are an adult - such that the tendency might be towards risk aversion.

Great piece by the way - looking forward to more!

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