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Our normal state is to be largely controlled by our emotions. In my opinion this is why books of wisdom have always dealt so much with self-control.

Detaching from self, exercising discretion, holding one's tongue, thinking of others (even if not for noble or altruistic reasons such a negotiation) these are all signs of prudence if not outright wisdom, and they all hinge on one's ability to rise above their emotional urges.

Obviously I'm not saying anything new here, but Robin seems to have taken a fresh look at an old problem, and the answer is still the same. We're emotional creatures that rarely - unfortunately - rise above ourselves to consider truly larger pictures.

So those with an agenda will always win because they are the most motivated to wrap their intentions in a narrative that is easily digested by the emotions, and reconstituted in our conscious minds as well reasoned "fact." (Consider the popularity of Malcolm Gladwell.)

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Instead we’ll need to find ways to frame indirect effects so that strong emotional responses seem appropriate, to allow people to signal feelings via considering indirect effects. Easier said than done, I know.

Now that you've given us insight into the problem, perhaps it could become easier, if we develop methods and techniques for doing so. I've always liked using reductio ad absurdum to blow apart an opponents proposal in arguments; what this post tells me is that my the absurdum should be constructed in a way which triggers 'near' emotional responses, making the opponent's proposal viscerally seem uncaring. Constructing pictures with deep emotional resonance is perhaps more the domain of artists than of people like myself, but I can learn :)

Wonderful post!

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Their may be something useful in people's gut feelings with respect to decision making:

http://www.amazon.com/Stran...

Also, people do need to look out for psychopaths which probably a good reason to avoid certain “cold” unfeeling folks. I am pretty glad that I have a psycho detector module even if it is tuned for the EEA.

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@Eliezer Yudkowsky

They know it, but do they feel it? I don’t see what that particular gap has to do with signaling in any way. Who are you signaling to, when you play a video game in private?I think you yourself have answered this in the past. "We are adaptation executors, not fitness maximizers." The adaptation to signal is executed, whether it is useful or not.

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Yourself, perhaps? Reinforcing your own self-perception as good?

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They know it, but do they feel it? I don't see what that particular gap has to do with signaling in any way. Who are you signaling to, when you play a video game in private?

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I've noticed this in books and television shows that are centered around some sort of military or law-enforcement conflict. A classic scene is when the commander chooses to sacrifice some group of people for what they think is a greater good. The hero of the story nearly always opposes them and is portrayed as acting heroically while the other character is heartless and uncaring. Of course, the hero always manages to somehow save everyone.

The few times that I see the "heartless" character turn out to be absolutely right I almost always cheer out loud, it's such a delightful subversion.

Taking this further, when a character chooses to sacrifice themself rather than somebody else for a greater good, it's usually portrayed positively. In a mixed situation where a character sacrifices other people and themselves, they are often portrayed as foolish and misguided, but not heartless. So I guess it really does come out to the sort of character it reveals.

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Vault Dweller claims BioWare designed evil paths to be hard, but all the true RPers at the Codex have it in for them (and Bethesda and...).

I was considering buying Invisible War some day despite all the shortcomings to see if you could play throughout it supporting the Templars. But from what I've heard you can't. So I'm holding off on computer games until V.D releases the rpg to end all rpgs.

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Similarly, when folks meet and say “its been so long, we simply must see each other more often,” they focus on the joy of meeting, and neglect the other less vivid reasons they have not been meeting....Who, other than Robin, attempts to seriously analyze this kind of human interaction? (Note: This is not intended as a criticism, just an observation.) Robin, I suspect that (perhaps in a different century and community) you could have been a fine Talmudic scholar.

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Another way to test people's preference from the appearance of altruism rather than true altruism is by looking at video games that let players choose Good vs. Evil. A game like the Star Wars-based Knights of the Old Republic lets players gradually overtime make "light-side" or "dark side" choices. The optimal strategy in terms of beating the game is too always maximize your light or dark side alliance, and be consistent.

My guess would be that if you could collect data on what players actually do, that a much greater percentage of light side players are pure than dark side players. I know from personal experience that some of the dark side missions seemed too cruel, and I'd end up doing light side missions even if I was trying to go dark side (and knew it was suboptimal). My experience isn't unique either, a lot of people say the same thing, like here:http://social.bioware.com/f...

Obviously everyone knows that the people you're "hurting" aren't real and are just video game game avatars but they still can't bring themselves to do it. It seems to me like this is a clear demonstration of the desire to appear altruistic rather than actually be altruistic.

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This sounds like a very solid conclusion. I'm bothered by the medical example though, as medical errors seem to me to offer emotions, near impact, good stories, etc.

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Easier said than done, but still possible, e.g. focusing on the sad stories of those forced into poverty by minimum wage laws.

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