The 2020 Presidential Election - Convention & General Election

We study the Groupthink in one of the classes I teach.  It is pretty cool.  The Ashe experiment is what we watch and then conduct, it works.

I think the Challenger blew up because of some major groupthinking that was going on.

 
BigRedBuster said:
Ummmm....you think she was just investigated for emails. How old are you?
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The Clintons certainly provided a lot of targets. OF course they have been in politics a long time. they basically started politics while still in Yale law school and Bill ran for office right after he graduated. 

RedDenver said:
Here's an interesting op-ed in the NYT about both believing Reade and still voting for Biden (sorry if it's already been posted but I'm not searching back through this thread):

I Believe Tara Reade. I’m Voting for Joe Biden Anyway.
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It's no fun when you skip ahead to acceptance.  You need to work your way through denial, grief, anger and bargaining. 

 
Danny Bateman said:
I decided to take a peek at some lists of cognitive biases and logical fallacies. I was curious if there were any that would help explain why something like the Reade allegation gets so much traction. Sure enough a lot of them can help explain our collective fascination with these type of stories and why we focus on them so much.

I've compiled a partial list of these and grouped similar ones together for simplicity:

Availability cascade: A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (or "repeat something long enough and it will become true").

Illusory truth effect: A tendency to believe that a statement is true if it is easier to process, or if it has been stated multiple times, regardless of its actual veracity. These are specific cases of truthiness.

-I.e.: It must be true that Biden committed sexual assault because people keep saying that's probably true.

Backfire effect: The reaction to disconfirming evidence by strengthening one's previous beliefs.

Sunk cost fallacy: The phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong.

-I.e.: This piece of new information contradicts my existing belief that I have invested much time and effort in, ergo I must double down on what I already believe.

Bandwagon Effect:  The tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same.

Groupthink:The psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Ingroup bias:The tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups.

-I.e.: I may adopt the beliefs or behaviors of others in my ingroup or the general public subconsciously even if they are illogical. That person is similar to me and believes X ergo I should probably believe X.

Confirmation bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

-I.e.: New evidence that supports what I already believe must be very important and I must share it because it reinforces my belief.

Countinued influence effect: The tendency to believe previously learned misinformation even after it has been corrected. Misinformation can still influence inferences one generates after a correction has occurred.

-I.e.: This thing I used to think was true has been disproven but I may still believe it to be true subconsciously.

Courtesy bias: The tendency to give an opinion that is more socially correct than one's true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone.

-I.e.: I am not likely to publicly state that Reade my be lying or Biden may be guilty because it's socially unacceptable.

Empathy gap: The tendency to underestimate the influence or strength of feelings, in either oneself or others.

-I.e.: The charged emotional context of the allegation may be influencing one's opinion of its veracity.
 

Negativity bias: Psychological phenomenon by which humans have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories.

Salience bias: The tendency to focus on items that are more prominent or emotionally striking and ignore those that are unremarkable, even though this difference is often irrelevant by objective standards

-I.e.: These accusations will be more noteworthy and I will focus on them more because they are emotionally unpleasant.

Is it any wonder these gain such traction and propagandists could view them as so electorally potent? They're littered with opportunities for people to abandon logical analysis and critical thinking.

I'm curious the degree to which any or all of these are affecting people. In particular, the availability cascade and illusory truth effect at the top worry me. They provide an opportunity to render something increasingly plausible to the public if it is merely repeated frequently enough. Facts become immaterial and it doesn't matter if something is true or not if you simply spam it enough.

Sidestepping the actual facts seems bad.
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I find it ridiculous that so many are discounting any evidence that supports Reade's allegations, but these certainly can explain why.

 
RedDenver said:
I find it ridiculous that so many are discounting any evidence that supports Reade's allegations, but these certainly can explain why.
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Dude, one guy (I think a blue checkmark guy on Twitter) even described how it would be impossible for Joe to ahem...use his fingers to do what he did without her helping him a bit.

I guess it is how far the Bidenists (can we say that now) will go to support their cult (still okay, right?) of the Mushy Mind.  (Man, that is a good one!)

 
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I had heard about this today!  

This is a smart move by her.  This is such a depantsing of Joey, he takes it and fails...BOOM.  He refuses to take and uh-oh, still guilty!

He pretty much has to take it now (but he won't and I don't blame him) to make this "go away".

 
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Danny Bateman said:
You know RT is a propaganda rag for the Kremlin and consistently peddles disinformation, right? They had to register as a foreign agent under FARA for crying out loud.
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FrantzHardySwag said:
Here's the Woman who broke the Biden/Reade story, on Russia Today (Putin's Mouthpiece), badmouthing Biden and the democrats. The host endorsed Trump directly prior to the interview. GOP/Russia/Trump gonna try and keep this story alive all they can. They interfered with the last election, and they'll try to do the same this election. 
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