I think that a lot of what folks call “arrogance” is just a basic failure to maintain a neutral attitude long enough to actually process statements and arguments.
But is arrogance justified in an epistemic sense? If you regularly score at, say, the 99.9th percentile on standardized tests or [insert-preferred-method-of-evaluation-here], does that entitle you to be dismissive of someone’s arguments (even if you don’t give any outward sign of it) until you see sufficient evidence that that person is likewise exceptional? (I’m not being rhetorical here; this is a question that I’m genuinely undecided on.)
I’d say there are cases where it’s reasonable to dismiss others’ opinions out of hand (apart from politeness etc.) BUT it takes more than “I’m much smarter than them”; there should be a factor like “I have all the evidence they have / I know all they know on that topic” and of course “I have good reasons to believe I’m smarter than them and know more”.
And even then it’s the kind of thing that’s reasonable “on average”, i.e. it can be a decent time-saving heuristic if needed, but it can still get wrong. Say Alice is studying for a Masters degree in physics and Bob, a high-schooler who’s not exceptionally bright (Alice had better science grades then him in high school), disagrees with her on something about black holes. As a rule of thumb, Alice is probably right BUT it happens that Bob just spent the summer camping with a family friend, Calvin, who’s a physicist and just wouldn’t shut up about black holes, explaining a bunch of concepts and controversies to Bob the best he could. Now it’s pretty likely that Bob is actually right (though Alice might be justified in not listening anyway, depending on how good Bob is at explaining his position).
there should be a factor like “I have all the evidence they have / I know all they know on that topic” and of course “I have good reasons to believe I’m smarter than them and know more”.
Yes, of course I agree. Domain expertise should also be included in your analysis.
I think a lot of what folks call “arrogance” is just a basic failure to be instrumentally rational in interpersonal communication.
I think that a lot of what folks call “arrogance” is just a basic failure to maintain a neutral attitude long enough to actually process statements and arguments.
But is arrogance justified in an epistemic sense? If you regularly score at, say, the 99.9th percentile on standardized tests or [insert-preferred-method-of-evaluation-here], does that entitle you to be dismissive of someone’s arguments (even if you don’t give any outward sign of it) until you see sufficient evidence that that person is likewise exceptional? (I’m not being rhetorical here; this is a question that I’m genuinely undecided on.)
I’d say there are cases where it’s reasonable to dismiss others’ opinions out of hand (apart from politeness etc.) BUT it takes more than “I’m much smarter than them”; there should be a factor like “I have all the evidence they have / I know all they know on that topic” and of course “I have good reasons to believe I’m smarter than them and know more”.
And even then it’s the kind of thing that’s reasonable “on average”, i.e. it can be a decent time-saving heuristic if needed, but it can still get wrong. Say Alice is studying for a Masters degree in physics and Bob, a high-schooler who’s not exceptionally bright (Alice had better science grades then him in high school), disagrees with her on something about black holes. As a rule of thumb, Alice is probably right BUT it happens that Bob just spent the summer camping with a family friend, Calvin, who’s a physicist and just wouldn’t shut up about black holes, explaining a bunch of concepts and controversies to Bob the best he could. Now it’s pretty likely that Bob is actually right (though Alice might be justified in not listening anyway, depending on how good Bob is at explaining his position).
Yes, of course I agree. Domain expertise should also be included in your analysis.