I also am confused by the assertion that the petition would benefit in some way from a “if after consideration you decide we’re wrong, we’ll support you” clause. It does not seem necessary or wise, before one attempts to persuade another that they are wrong, to agree to support their conclusion if they engage in careful consideration. Even when incentives are aligned.
I think what this does is separate out the “I think you should update your map” message and the “I am shifting your incentives” message. If I think that someone would prefer the strawberry ice cream to the vanilla ice cream, I can simply offer that information to them, or I can advise them to get the strawberry, and make it a test of our friendship whether they follow my advice, rewarding them if they try it and like it, and punishing them in all other cases.
In cases where you simply want to offer information, and not put any ‘undue’ pressure on their decision-making, it seems good to be able to flag that. The broader question is something like “what pressures are undue, and why?”; you could imagine that there are cases where I want to shift the incentives of others, like telling a would-be bicycle thief that I think they would prefer not stealing the bike to stealing it, and part of that is because I would take actions against them if they did.
A quick comment on just this part:
I think what this does is separate out the “I think you should update your map” message and the “I am shifting your incentives” message. If I think that someone would prefer the strawberry ice cream to the vanilla ice cream, I can simply offer that information to them, or I can advise them to get the strawberry, and make it a test of our friendship whether they follow my advice, rewarding them if they try it and like it, and punishing them in all other cases.
In cases where you simply want to offer information, and not put any ‘undue’ pressure on their decision-making, it seems good to be able to flag that. The broader question is something like “what pressures are undue, and why?”; you could imagine that there are cases where I want to shift the incentives of others, like telling a would-be bicycle thief that I think they would prefer not stealing the bike to stealing it, and part of that is because I would take actions against them if they did.