The anti-wikipedia bias has shifted from being a pretentious hold-over from the “I spent 8 years learning the names of the relevant sources in my field” to an outright cognitive bias held by the uneducated “Where’d you get that fact—wikipedia? - in that case, I’m allowed to ignore your argument. I get my facts from talk radio.”
“Where’d you get that fact—wikipedia? - in that case, I’m allowed to ignore your argument. I get my facts from talk radio.”
That sounds like a perfect example of how knowing about biases can hurt people. It’s similar to something I often see in religious arguments: someone who wants to rationalize away an argument will often come up with a really flimsy counter-argument, overlook its flaws, and stop thinking about the issue immediately. It’s a particularly pathological case of being more critical of opposing views than ones you agree with.
The anti-wikipedia bias has shifted from being a pretentious hold-over from the “I spent 8 years learning the names of the relevant sources in my field” to an outright cognitive bias held by the uneducated “Where’d you get that fact—wikipedia? - in that case, I’m allowed to ignore your argument. I get my facts from talk radio.”
That sounds like a perfect example of how knowing about biases can hurt people. It’s similar to something I often see in religious arguments: someone who wants to rationalize away an argument will often come up with a really flimsy counter-argument, overlook its flaws, and stop thinking about the issue immediately. It’s a particularly pathological case of being more critical of opposing views than ones you agree with.