Improved Cores Unwanted
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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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The most interesting thing I learned at the Symposium last weekend was this two year old paper on a survey about enhancement. Its main result was that the more people considered a feature to be a key part of their identity, the less they wanted to improve it. Few folks want to improve their empathy, self-confidence, or self-control, while more folks want to enhance their rote memory, math ability, and wakefulness. I suspect something similar holds for beliefs: the more important a belief is to our identity, the less eager we are to improve that belief via evidence or analysis. Beware identifying with beliefs!
The paper’s main table:
Hat tip to Anders Sandberg.
Improved Cores Unwanted
My follow-up post here explains (in more detail than my above comment) why I think this post is misleading...
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.