Eli5: Why is it easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled?
In: 634
In order to fool someone you only need at least one of a few simple things to be true.
* That the person trusts you
* That the person is not very smart
* That the person is uninformed
* That the person doesn’t care about the subject too much
* That the person has a bias and being fooled supports that bias
* The person likes to feel superior to others and you can tie that feeling in to believing what you are telling them
However, to convince some one that they were fooled you need more difficult things to be true and rather importantly you are dealing with a person who ‘was fooled’ so you know the first list applies to them.
To accept that they were fooled they must.
* Be willing to admit they can be described by some or all of the first list
* Be willing to critically look at evidence that makes them uncomfortable or makes them lose any sense of superiority they enjoyed by being fooled
* Be intelligent and willing to turn that intelligence towards analysing themselves and finding fault within
* Be humble
As you can see the second list is tougher to achieve. Especially if we already qualify for the first list.
Eli5: Why is it easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled?
In: 634
In order to fool someone you only need at least one of a few simple things to be true.
* That the person trusts you
* That the person is not very smart
* That the person is uninformed
* That the person doesn’t care about the subject too much
* That the person has a bias and being fooled supports that bias
* The person likes to feel superior to others and you can tie that feeling in to believing what you are telling them
However, to convince some one that they were fooled you need more difficult things to be true and rather importantly you are dealing with a person who ‘was fooled’ so you know the first list applies to them.
To accept that they were fooled they must.
* Be willing to admit they can be described by some or all of the first list
* Be willing to critically look at evidence that makes them uncomfortable or makes them lose any sense of superiority they enjoyed by being fooled
* Be intelligent and willing to turn that intelligence towards analysing themselves and finding fault within
* Be humble
As you can see the second list is tougher to achieve. Especially if we already qualify for the first list.
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