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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Robin: the cost of being a successful politician is much higher than being a successful school principal, priest, etc. (Possibly the same with respect to CEOs. The competition for successful politician jobs is much more intense, it requires long-term and pervasive kinds of reputation/human capital investment, like getting into the party organization and paying your dues, being careful never to be caught smoking a joint, marrying right, etc. At the same time, the formal salaries for those jobs are rather low compared to what someone with similar talent and less investment would be able to make on the market. So one has reason to suspect that politicians are motivated by some other set of payoffs, either altruistic ones or evil ones...

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Should people from war-torn or disintegrating countries be considered more reliable judges of candidates? Somalian refugees could be interviewed on the news for their impressions of politicians. Maybe psychiatrists and prison guards could also be asked their opinion.Or are there other biases that would render this information valueless?

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