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posted by martyb on Friday December 07 2018, @09:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the Lifestyles dept.

Science magazine includes this article claiming insights into human behavior that can "help conservation.":

In order of appearance, they are:

1. People have a strong tendency to avoid making difficult decisions, and as a result, they are prone to accepting whatever default option they are presented with—even when this option is not in their own, or society's, best interest.

[...] 2. People also have a cognitive bias that causes them to disproportionately weight initial information when making decisions.

[...] 3. ... there is a cognitive bias that causes people to perceive that losses hurt about twice as much as gains feel good, often referred to as loss aversion or prospect theory.

[...] 4. The decoy effect is the phenomenon that people tend to change their preference between two options when presented with a third option that is meant to be inferior in some regard (a decoy).

[...] 5. [We have an] ... innate desire for prestige, reputation, conformity, and reciprocity ... [so that our] ... decisions and actions are shaped by perceptions (whether accurate or not) of what other people do and what they approve.

[...] 6. People also behave differently when they think they are being observed.

[...] 7. ... we are also influenced by the source of our information ... [like] popular actors, athletes, or public figures.

Now that we know these, let's use them to accumulate power and own the world! But first we should use them to boost donations to SoylentNews!


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by shortscreen on Friday December 07 2018, @09:39AM (5 children)

    by shortscreen (2252) on Friday December 07 2018, @09:39AM (#771092) Journal

    People are bad at cost-benefit analysis.

    Maybe school kids need to play more chess, Super Robot Wars, or some other strategy game that involves thinking ahead.

    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday December 07 2018, @12:12PM (2 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 07 2018, @12:12PM (#771112) Journal

      Maybe school kids need to play more chess, Super Robot Wars, or some other strategy game that involves thinking ahead.

      I would suggest learning how to play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage [soylentnews.org]!

      For starters, it helps tremendously in learning to perceive unique permutations -- a useful skill in its own right.

      Next, it greatly boosts one's math skills WRT addition.

      Lastly, though one can certainly play cribbage without it, it is another level of play when one starts including strategy. Ordinarily, one would generally go for just maximizing the score of a possible hand + pegging, but on the last leg, one or the other may hold primacy depending on where you are, where your opponent is, and who is the dealer (and, therefore, who has to wait to count their hand after their opponent.)

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @01:42PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @01:42PM (#771132)

        You bungled the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage [wikipedia.org]

        • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday December 07 2018, @03:40PM

          by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 07 2018, @03:40PM (#771172) Journal
          Yes, I did. Oooooops! Thanks for the corrected link!
          --
          Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by darkfeline on Friday December 07 2018, @09:08PM

      by darkfeline (1030) on Friday December 07 2018, @09:08PM (#771305) Homepage

      Kids need to play a wider variety of games. Even better, kids need to have a wide variety of experiences. I think cost-benefit analysis is better taught using "spreadsheet" games like MMORPGs than chess. Chess is way too simplistic and deterministic, you need to be able to weigh dozens of variables, many of them with varying degrees of uncertainty and interaction effects.

      On cost-benefit specifically, here's a good TED talk on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-4flnuxNV4 [youtube.com]

      --
      Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @10:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @10:33AM (#771474)

      Everyone should dedicate 40+ hours to Starcraft or Warcraft or Red Alert or Command and Conquer that teach planning and resource management skills.

      After experiencing the end game scenario where resource have run out or are very difficult to get, and the only move left is to swap another player with everything to win people should gain a better perceptive on climate change, world politics, and perhaps have a clearer mental view of what the rest of this century will be like.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @11:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @11:30AM (#771103)

    ... insights into human behavior that can "help conservatism."

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @12:19PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @12:19PM (#771116)

    These laws or guidelines were written by someone who did not know about (or intentionally ignored) mind control and believes that people are free to choose and they make mistakes because of certain behaviors or tendencies.

    News today talk of murder, theft and poverty without letting anyone do anything about it, proposing solutions (which have been studied in detail) and without solving the underlying issues. They make you think it is beyond your control and that is just the way things are, always have been and will always be. The control people have over things comes from the act of cooperation. That is, cooperate with good actors and refuse to do business or cooperate with bad actors.

    All this comes from perception control. (((They))) have studied human weaknesses and exploit them to harm us. Do you still believe they are our friends or even human?

    • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @02:44PM (9 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @02:44PM (#771152)

      AC parent post, please take your ))white-supremacist(( shit elsewhere.
      ((They)) may be 15 points smarter IQ on average.
      Some of ((them)) gravitate towards professions that insulate them socially and financially from assholes like ))you((.
      Other than that, ((they)) are just like everybody else, including ))you((.

      Rupert Murdoch, arguably the biggest destructive master media manipulator, is one of ++them++ and one of $$them$$, not one of ((them)).

      • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:20PM (8 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:20PM (#771164)

        How did you get "))white supremacist((" and "Rupert Murdoch" from that post? While the AC seems a bit high on the "out there" quotient, your response indicates you are way out there as well.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:47PM (7 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @03:47PM (#771173)

          Apologies to mods for this thread derail...

          (((This))) is alt-right dog-whistle for "damn dirty Jew". Poster was implying that Jews are into orld-wide mind-control. I rebut that argument by noting Murdoch, proprietor of arguably the biggest, most comprehensive, profit-seeking mindfucking news media empire on the planet, is in no way Jewish. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

          PS i advocate )))...((( to denote white-suprems. Think of it as triple-buttcheeks with a triple-asshole within.

          • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:19PM (4 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:19PM (#771183)

            you're a stupid fuck. just because some people use something in one particular way doesn't mean they own the term, even if both happen to denote the term with parenthesis.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:43PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:43PM (#771190)

              Now you know and can stop being ignorant.

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @05:06PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @05:06PM (#771210)

              you're a stupid fuck. just because some people use something in one particular way doesn't mean they own the term, even if both happen to denote the term with parenthesis.

              Spotted the white-supremacist. Get the fuck out, loser!

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @05:19PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @05:19PM (#771218)

                Spotted the white-supremacist. Get the fuck out, loser!

                Now, now, let's try to not be any less civil to the 'you're-a-stupid-fuck' )))AC((( above than they would be to ((them))). Parens are civil and respectful, amirite?

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @05:05AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @05:05AM (#771441)

              Who are you talking about then? The [[[lizard people]]]? Use square brackets for [[[them]]].

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @04:59AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @04:59AM (#771439)

            PS i advocate )))...((( to denote white-suprems. Think of it as triple-buttcheeks with a triple-asshole within.

            I like it.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:04AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:04AM (#771467)

              What do you like?

              Butts? You're a jew. Amirite?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @09:58PM (#771317)

      How many levels of irony are you on right now?

  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @12:59PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @12:59PM (#771125)

    Back in the pre-NHST days people were coming up with mathematical laws that described behavior. See, eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect [wikipedia.org]

    Now psychology has been reduced to this worthless crap.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:05PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:05PM (#771176)

    Every corporation has a whole department devoted to it;often the biggest department of the company; marketing.

    • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday December 07 2018, @05:40PM (2 children)

      by stretch611 (6199) on Friday December 07 2018, @05:40PM (#771231)

      Actually, it is more apropos when it is named: "Sales and Marketing" aka S&M

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 07 2018, @05:42PM (1 child)

        by Thexalon (636) on Friday December 07 2018, @05:42PM (#771234)

        That's offensive, associating good, clean, wholesome activity with the likes of corporate advertising!

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 07 2018, @05:55PM

          by bob_super (1357) on Friday December 07 2018, @05:55PM (#771243)

          Please take your complaint to the department of Behavior and Diversity.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Nuke on Friday December 07 2018, @08:15PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Friday December 07 2018, @08:15PM (#771289)

    Sounds like they have only just discovered the 16th century writings of Niccolò Machiavelli.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @01:24AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @01:24AM (#771377)

      Every generation has to relearn that which was discovered before.

      This is why learning new things is pointless

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @03:22AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @03:22AM (#771416)

    If you're not too busy pretending you already knew that these particular vauge quotes about humans were the true ones, you can get more info from ``Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Bias'', it's a short (~7page) paper and absolutely worth your time.

    http://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teaching/Tversky_Kahneman_1974.pdf [uci.edu]

    If you want more than that, try Rationality: From AI to Zombies (it's free here https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/ [intelligence.org] and there's a free audiobook in-progress here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTwrA4rQcLo&list=PL3hW4y942QOpL4m-5S1L2J1nH-JF7_DII). [youtube.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:20AM (#771483)
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:54AM (#771500)

    Because the minimum age for criminal behaviour is 10 years old.

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