Robin Hanson (who else?) writes:
…teen romp movies tend to portray parents and teachers as inept,
clueless, sexually repressed, but ready to help when help is wanted.
If so, teens should realize that parents and teachers probably know
more, are more sexually satisfied, but less available to help, than
teens realize. We should be able to find hundreds of other applications, such as using the standard biases of science fiction.
Good idea. Let me think about what else I can learn from his methodology:
-Women are *less* likely to fall in love with their rapists than portrayed.
-Being shot at by numerous men with guns is *more* likely to result in one’s death than portrayed.
-It is generally *less* appropriate to remark “drinks are on the house” when you smash a beer bottle
on someone’s head than portrayed.
Hm, any one’s I’m missing?
I thought our fiction module was efficiently selected by evolution as a repository of possible responses to novel situations. Crap.
Rasmus, are you including romance novels in your esimates?
Sure fictional characters are stereotypes, but how much of this translates into bias (or reflects existing bias)? Regarding helpfulness, I think fiction represents our ideal: this is how parents *ought* to behave toward their children. Perhaps such portrayals push parents to be more helpful than they would otherwise be.
“Don’t be tricked by the biases of fiction”
Well, since they call it “fiction,” I’d have to say they’re doing a poor job of tricking me.
Someone once said that if you ever find yourself in a situation that feels like it could be taken straight from a novel, you should run like hell.
doctorpat: Romance novels are indeed pretty common.
“Rasmus, are you including romance novels in your esimates?”
Nope, never crossed my mind. But now that you mention it I can easily see “romantic rape” being a rather common feature of them, what with rape being one of the most frequent female fantasies.
“ramsus, I would love to see the data behind the date rape claim.”
Dvaid, I don’t have it handy, but read it in Robin Baker’s excellent “Sperm Wars”. The basic idea is that rape is a genetic test and that a successful rape triggers feelings of “good mate material”.
The study he referenced were performed by interviewing a large number of American female college students in the 80:ies. So you should be able to find it by scholar.google if you’re really interested.
“I suspect Person may read some really kinky stuff.”
I suppose romance novels might fit the bill.
“Well, since they call it “fiction,” I’d have to say they’re doing a poor job of tricking me.”
The point isn’t that you’re fooled by actual fiction. The point is that we have a “story-telling mind” and over rely on cause-and-effect thinking too much. And since the same mechanisms are exploited to make good stories we can therefore shine a light on them by looking at where stories differ systematically from reality.
Unlike in the movies, if you drive like a crazed lunatic you will probably have an accident and kill someone, including quite possibly yourself.
I’m glad someone helped me figure that out.
A common one: If someone is a fanatical anti-semite – he’s probably secretly a jew! If someone is violently homophobic – he must be a closet homosexual! It seems clear to me that people actually believe this kind of argument, (espc. about homosexuality), but I can see no reason why, outside of fiction.
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