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Friday, April 22, 2016

"The act of voting causes a sort of psychological blindness... Our brains are pattern-recognition machines, but not good ones."

The Value of Not Voting | Scott Adams Blog: "Anderson Cooper of CNN says he probably won’t vote in the coming election. He says voting would bias him when he covers political news. I agree. 

I call it the joiner problem. The minute you take a side, you start acquiring confirmation bias to bolster your sense of rightness. Objectivity is nearly impossible once you commit to a team.  The way confirmation bias works is that you can’t see it when you’re in it. Other people might be able to observe the bias in you, but by definition you can’t see it in yourself. The act of voting causes a sort of psychological blindness...

Our brains are pattern-recognition machines, but not good ones. We see patterns where there are none, and we miss patterns where they exist."

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