Why Do People Follow a Subjective Rather Than an Objective Opinion?

Off Topic
1

Clearly many opinions are considered heavily more reasonable by society than others. Often these opinions are backed by a level of objectivity. Most of us agree that certain behaviours such as Racism, Sexism, many forms of discrimination, and various criminal activities are unhealthy, uneconomically productive and do not enhance the general utility of society.

Presumably these widely held beliefs have formed because of an objective basis that can be drawn upon to support such conclusions. People of every race have made extremely valuable contributions to human development. Millions and millions of Women exist that are more talented than me e.t.c.

The vast majority of people would accept the statements ascribed above. Even though no ‘exact’ mathematical model exists.

What I am interested in is when a large number of people or a significant minority of people seem to accept beliefs that are clearly either dysfunctional or lacking on logical examination. An explanation could, sadly, be that we are governed to a greater degree by social conditioning to an extent that it is able to manipulate our innate feelings of utility. Our beliefs in which behaviours will produce the greatest good or happiness become distorted if we are fed incorrect information. Naturally we are easy to manipulate in this regard because as per “Thnking fast and Slow,” humans struggle to think statistically because human life does not easily ascribe to any mathematical model - Hence why no opinion is truly objective.

Therefore the inability to reason life events with a clear mathematical model leaves the human being vulnerable in situations where: -

I) The flow of information is easily controlled in support of an unhealthy viewpoint, and

II) The significant information contrary to the viewpoint is withheld. Hence it is far easier to accept a belief than search for any information that might question it.

and

III) The subsequent snowball effect where a belief becomes more popular due to a human’s tendency to mirror social normatives or others, presumably as an evolutionary prerequisite to survival.

Kind Regards and have a really good evening,

Alex

2

Having not watched the video because it’d be inappropriate to do so at my office, and thinking that the John Cena/Rock exposition probably makes more sense after doing so, I will offer this:

People listen to subjective opinions more often than forming their own objective opinions because it is easy, and people are dumb and lazy.

2 Likes
3

I think that you might sadly be correct. It is easy to see how terrible things such as the Holocaust unfolded. We are all, and sadly I can’t exclude myself from this, subject to social conditioning to a much greater extent than any of us are willing to admit.

Why do I go to the gym? Why did I do a degree? Why do I wear certain clothes?

However those three examples don’t defy logical explanation.

Whereas genocides, the holocaust, the hatred that many public figures encounter, all often do…

Have a really good evening dude.

Take care :slight_smile:

Alex

4

How can you have an objective opinion?

6 Likes
5

True. An “objective opinion” is a fact, or at least an accepted theory. Objectivity is, by definition, not influenced by opinion or bias.

1 Like
6

Go read “Thinking, Fast and Slow” … might shed some light on this phenomenon

7

In absolute terms I would agree with you that no such thing as a totally objective opinion exists.
Ultimately the point where an opinion is deemed totally objective is where we call it Science or Mathematics. But even then, it is rarely objective in the purest of senses!
Pi is a never-ending number after all, so we don’t really know the ‘exact’ area of a circle :slight_smile:

Yet clearly many opinions are considered heavily more reasonable by society than others. Often these opinions are backed by a level of objectivity. Most of us agree that certain behaviours such as Racism, Sexism, many forms of discrimination, and various criminal activities are unhealthy, uneconomically productive and do not enhance the general utility of society.

Presumably these widely held beliefs have formed because of an objective basis that can be drawn upon to support such conclusions. People of every race have made extremely valuable contributions to human development. Millions and millions of Women exist that are more talented than me e.t.c.

The vast majority of people would accept the statements ascribed above. Even though no ‘exact’ mathematical model exists.

What I am interested in is when a large number of people or a significant minority of people seem to accept beliefs that are clearly either dysfunctional or lacking on logical examination. An explanation could, sadly, be that we are governed to a greater degree by social conditioning to an extent that it is able to manipulate our innate feelings of utility. Our beliefs in which behaviours will produce the greatest good or happiness become distorted if we are fed incorrect information. Naturally we are easy to manipulate in this regard because as per “Thnking fast and Slow,” humans struggle to think statistically because human life does not easily ascribe to any mathematical model - Hence why no opinion is truly objective.

Therefore the inability to reason life events with a clear mathematical model leaves the human being vulnerable in situations where: -

I) The flow of information is easily controlled in support of an unhealthy viewpoint, and

II) The significant information contrary to the viewpoint is withheld. Hence it is far easier to accept a belief than search for any information that might question it.

and

III) The subsequent snowball effect where a belief becomes more popular due to a human’s tendency to mirror social normatives or others, presumably as an evolutionary prerequisite to survival.

Kind Regards and have a really good evening,

Alex

8

This is a really good book. Everyone should read it.

9

In seriousness, while attempts are made to distinguish an “objective” opinion from a “subjective” one, which category a given opinion falls in . . . . is an opinion.

Some opinions are just better reasoned than others.

10

I plug it every chance I get … really made me question a lot of my assumptions and shed light on a lot of my mental shortcomings so to speak

1 Like
11

All opinions are subjective. Objective opinion lol

12

Some people are less biased and have more knowledge.

13

As a practicing solipsist, all of my subjective opinions are objective.

6 Likes
14

End thread. Hahahaha.

1 Like
15

Idk man I’m hoping this turns into a 50+ post argument over colloquialisms at some point.

1 Like
16

I know a lot of issues in my life would be resolved if I had some maths to run all the variables through.

17

Get it started homie … say some shit you know is semantically ambiguous and get the fireworks lit yo

1 Like
18

It’s dubious to infer one should adhere to an archetype of beliefs based solely on the notion that, empirically, the aforementioned paradigm is bolstered by the appeal of anecdote alone, as one simply could gerrymander as such, thus reduces all thought to a finite set of pre-conceived algorithms.

K go.

2 Likes
19

Matrix confirmed

20

Indubitably.