Is there a bias, maybe called the ‘compensation bias’, that causes one to think that any person with many obvious positive traits or circumstances (really attractive, rich, intelligent, seemingly happy, et cetera) must have at least one huge compensating flaw or a tragic history or something? I looked through Wiki’s list of cognitive biases and didn’t see it, but I thought I’d heard of something like this. Maybe it’s not a real bias?
If not, I’d be surprised. Whenever I talk to my non-rationalist friends about how amazing persons X Y or Z are, they invariably (out of 5 or so occasions when I brought it up) replied with something along the lines of ’Well I bet he/she is secretly horribly depressed / a horrible person / full of ennui / not well-liked by friends and family”. This is kind of the opposite of the halo effect. It could be that this bias only occurs when someone is asked to evaluate the overall goodness of someone who they themselves have not gotten the chance to respect or see as high status.
Anyway, I know Eliezer had a post called ‘competent elites’ or summat along these lines, but I’m not sure if this effect is a previously researched bias I’m half-remembering or if it’s just a natural consequence of some other biases (e.g. just world bias).
Added: Alternative hypothesis that is more consistent with the halo effect and physical attractiveness stereotype data: my friends are themselves exceptionally physically attractive and competent but have compensatory personal flaws or depression or whatever, and are thus generalizing from one or two examples when assuming that others that share similar traits as themselves would also have such problems. I think this is the more likely of my two current hypotheses, as my friends are exceptionally awesome as well as exceptionally angsty. Aspiring rationalists! Empiricists and theorists needed! Do you have data or alternative hypotheses?
It may have to do with the manner you bring it up—it’s not hard to see how saying something like “X is amazing” could be interpreted “X is amazing...and you’re not” (after all, how often do you tell your friends how amazing they are?), in which case the bias is some combination of status jockeying, cognitive dissonance and ego protection.
Wow, that’s seems like a very likely hypothesis that I completely missed. Is there some piece of knowledge you came in with or heuristic you used that I could have used to think up your hypothesis?
I’ve spent some time thinking about this, and the best answer I can give is that I spend enough time thinking about the origins and motivations of my own behavior that, if it’s something I might conceivably do right now, or (more importantly) at some point in the past, I can offer up a possible motivation behind it.
Apparently this is becoming more and more subconscious, as it took quite a bit of thinking before I realized that that’s what I had done.
Is this actually incorrect, though? As far as I know, people have problems and inadequacies. When they solve them, they move on to worrying about other things. It’s probably a safe bet that the awesome people you’re describing do as well.
What probably is wrong is that general awesomeness makes hidden bad stuff more likely.
Given that there’s the halo effect (that you mention) plus the affect heuristic, it seems that if there’s a bias, it goes the other way—people tend to think all positive attributes clump together.
If both effects exist, that would cast doubt on whether it counts as a bias at all, as the direction of the error is not consistently one way. (Right?)
If both effects exist, that would cast doubt on whether it counts as a bias at all, as the direction of the error is not consistently one way. (Right?)
Will’s remark suggests that the biases exist in different circumstances. If I’m following Will, then the halo effect occurs when people have already interacted with impressive individuals, whereas Will’s reported effect occurs only when people are hearing about an impressive individual in a second-hand or third-hand way.
Is there a bias, maybe called the ‘compensation bias’, that causes one to think that any person with many obvious positive traits or circumstances (really attractive, rich, intelligent, seemingly happy, et cetera) must have at least one huge compensating flaw or a tragic history or something? I looked through Wiki’s list of cognitive biases and didn’t see it, but I thought I’d heard of something like this. Maybe it’s not a real bias?
If not, I’d be surprised. Whenever I talk to my non-rationalist friends about how amazing persons X Y or Z are, they invariably (out of 5 or so occasions when I brought it up) replied with something along the lines of ’Well I bet he/she is secretly horribly depressed / a horrible person / full of ennui / not well-liked by friends and family”. This is kind of the opposite of the halo effect. It could be that this bias only occurs when someone is asked to evaluate the overall goodness of someone who they themselves have not gotten the chance to respect or see as high status.
Anyway, I know Eliezer had a post called ‘competent elites’ or summat along these lines, but I’m not sure if this effect is a previously researched bias I’m half-remembering or if it’s just a natural consequence of some other biases (e.g. just world bias).
Added: Alternative hypothesis that is more consistent with the halo effect and physical attractiveness stereotype data: my friends are themselves exceptionally physically attractive and competent but have compensatory personal flaws or depression or whatever, and are thus generalizing from one or two examples when assuming that others that share similar traits as themselves would also have such problems. I think this is the more likely of my two current hypotheses, as my friends are exceptionally awesome as well as exceptionally angsty. Aspiring rationalists! Empiricists and theorists needed! Do you have data or alternative hypotheses?
It may have to do with the manner you bring it up—it’s not hard to see how saying something like “X is amazing” could be interpreted “X is amazing...and you’re not” (after all, how often do you tell your friends how amazing they are?), in which case the bias is some combination of status jockeying, cognitive dissonance and ego protection.
Wow, that’s seems like a very likely hypothesis that I completely missed. Is there some piece of knowledge you came in with or heuristic you used that I could have used to think up your hypothesis?
I’ve spent some time thinking about this, and the best answer I can give is that I spend enough time thinking about the origins and motivations of my own behavior that, if it’s something I might conceivably do right now, or (more importantly) at some point in the past, I can offer up a possible motivation behind it.
Apparently this is becoming more and more subconscious, as it took quite a bit of thinking before I realized that that’s what I had done.
Could it be a matter of being excessively influenced by fiction? It’s more convenient for stories if a character has some flaws and suffering.
Is this actually incorrect, though? As far as I know, people have problems and inadequacies. When they solve them, they move on to worrying about other things. It’s probably a safe bet that the awesome people you’re describing do as well.
What probably is wrong is that general awesomeness makes hidden bad stuff more likely.
Possibly a form of the just-world fallacy.
Given that there’s the halo effect (that you mention) plus the affect heuristic, it seems that if there’s a bias, it goes the other way—people tend to think all positive attributes clump together.
If both effects exist, that would cast doubt on whether it counts as a bias at all, as the direction of the error is not consistently one way. (Right?)
Will’s remark suggests that the biases exist in different circumstances. If I’m following Will, then the halo effect occurs when people have already interacted with impressive individuals, whereas Will’s reported effect occurs only when people are hearing about an impressive individual in a second-hand or third-hand way.