Here are two hypotheses for why they don’t judge those costs to be worth it, each one of which is much more plausible to me than the one you proposed:
(1) The costs aren’t in fact worth it & they’ve reacted appropriately to the evidence. (2) The costs are worth it, but thanks to motivated reasoning, they exaggerate the costs, because writing things up in academic style and then dealing with the publication process is boring and frustrating.
Seriously, isn’t (2) a much better hypothesis than the one you put forth about moats?
I’m not necessarily saying people are subconsciously trying to create a moat.
I’m saying they are acting in a way that creates a moat, and that enables them to avoid competition, and that more competition would create more motivation for them to write things up for academic audiences (or even just write more clearly for non-academic audiences).
Me, reflecting afterwards: hmm… Cynically,[2] not publishing is a really good way to create a moat around your research… People who want to work on that area have to come talk to you, and you can be a gatekeeper. And you don’t have to worry about somebody with more skills and experience coming along and trashing your work or out-competing you and rendering it obsolete...
I’m not accusing anyone of having bad motivations; I think it is almost always valuable to consider both people’s concious motivations and their incentives (which may be subconscious (EtA: or indirect) drivers of their behavior).
Before you put in the EtA, it sure sounded like you were saying that people were subconsciously motivated to avoid academic publishing because it helped them build and preserve a moat. Now, after the EtA, it still sounds like that but is a bit more unclear since ‘indirect’ is a bit more ambiguous than ‘subconscious.’
My point (see footnote) is that motivations are complex. I do not believe “the real motivations” is a very useful concept here.
The question becomes why “don’t they judge those costs to be worth it”? Is there motivated reasoning involved? Almost certainly yes; there always is.
Here are two hypotheses for why they don’t judge those costs to be worth it, each one of which is much more plausible to me than the one you proposed:
(1) The costs aren’t in fact worth it & they’ve reacted appropriately to the evidence.
(2) The costs are worth it, but thanks to motivated reasoning, they exaggerate the costs, because writing things up in academic style and then dealing with the publication process is boring and frustrating.
Seriously, isn’t (2) a much better hypothesis than the one you put forth about moats?
I’m not necessarily saying people are subconsciously trying to create a moat.
I’m saying they are acting in a way that creates a moat, and that enables them to avoid competition, and that more competition would create more motivation for them to write things up for academic audiences (or even just write more clearly for non-academic audiences).
It sure sounds like you are saying that though!
Before you put in the EtA, it sure sounded like you were saying that people were subconsciously motivated to avoid academic publishing because it helped them build and preserve a moat. Now, after the EtA, it still sounds like that but is a bit more unclear since ‘indirect’ is a bit more ambiguous than ‘subconscious.’