(A) I find the feeling of picking up the tofu with the fork to be intrinsically satisfying—it feels satisfying and empowering to feel the tongs of the fork slide into the tofu.
(B) I don’t care at all about the feeling of the fork sliding into the tofu; instead I feel motivated to pick up tofu with the fork because I’m hungry and tofu is yummy.
For (A), the analogy to picking up feta is logically sound—this is legitimate evidence that picking up the feta will also feel intrinsically satisfying. And accordingly, my brain, having made the analogy, correctly feels motivated to pick up feta.
For (B), the analogy to picking up feta is irrelevant. The dimension along which I’m analogizing (how the fork slides in) is unrelated to the dimension which constitutes the source of my motivation (tofu being yummy). And accordingly, if I like the taste of tofu but dislike feta, then I will not feel motivated to pick up the feta, not even a little bit, let alone to the point where it’s determining my behavior.
The lesson here (I claim) is that our brain algorithms are sophisticated enough to not just note whether an analogy target has good or bad vibes, but rather whether the analogy target has good or bad vibes for reasons that legitimately transfer back to the real plan under consideration.
So circling back to empathy, if I was a sociopath, then “Ahmed getting punched” might still kinda remind me of “me getting punched”, but the reason I dislike “me getting punched” is because it’s painful, whereas “Ahmed getting punched” is not painful. So even if “me getting punched” momentarily popped into my sociopathic head, I would then immediately say to myself “ah, but that’s not something I need to worry about here”, and whistle a tune and carry on with my day.
Remember, empathy is a major force. People submit to torture and turn their lives upside down over feelings of empathy. If you want to talk about phenomena like “something unpleasant popped into my head momentarily, even if it doesn’t really have anything to do with this situation”, then OK maybe that kind of thing might have a nonzero impact on motivation, but even if it does, it’s gonna be tiny. It’s definitely not up to the task of explaining such a central part of human behavior, right?
Hmm, maybe we should distinguish two things:
(A) I find the feeling of picking up the tofu with the fork to be intrinsically satisfying—it feels satisfying and empowering to feel the tongs of the fork slide into the tofu.
(B) I don’t care at all about the feeling of the fork sliding into the tofu; instead I feel motivated to pick up tofu with the fork because I’m hungry and tofu is yummy.
For (A), the analogy to picking up feta is logically sound—this is legitimate evidence that picking up the feta will also feel intrinsically satisfying. And accordingly, my brain, having made the analogy, correctly feels motivated to pick up feta.
For (B), the analogy to picking up feta is irrelevant. The dimension along which I’m analogizing (how the fork slides in) is unrelated to the dimension which constitutes the source of my motivation (tofu being yummy). And accordingly, if I like the taste of tofu but dislike feta, then I will not feel motivated to pick up the feta, not even a little bit, let alone to the point where it’s determining my behavior.
The lesson here (I claim) is that our brain algorithms are sophisticated enough to not just note whether an analogy target has good or bad vibes, but rather whether the analogy target has good or bad vibes for reasons that legitimately transfer back to the real plan under consideration.
So circling back to empathy, if I was a sociopath, then “Ahmed getting punched” might still kinda remind me of “me getting punched”, but the reason I dislike “me getting punched” is because it’s painful, whereas “Ahmed getting punched” is not painful. So even if “me getting punched” momentarily popped into my sociopathic head, I would then immediately say to myself “ah, but that’s not something I need to worry about here”, and whistle a tune and carry on with my day.
Remember, empathy is a major force. People submit to torture and turn their lives upside down over feelings of empathy. If you want to talk about phenomena like “something unpleasant popped into my head momentarily, even if it doesn’t really have anything to do with this situation”, then OK maybe that kind of thing might have a nonzero impact on motivation, but even if it does, it’s gonna be tiny. It’s definitely not up to the task of explaining such a central part of human behavior, right?