I got one and took my young son to get one as well. Convincing a child of the benefit of getting a shot or nasal spray makes for an excellent lesson in rationality since you must convince the kid to accept immediate and certain pain in return for a moderately reduced chance of experiencing a larger amount of future pain.
I got the shot (for free via my insurance), and it was completely painless. I looked away from my arm to prevent tensing up, and I literally did not feel the needle go in. There was a little soreness later that day, but not much. Worth keeping in mind—getting the shot is not unpleasant.
Shots, including the flu shot, always cause me pain. I usually tell the person about to give me the shot not to stop if it looks like I’m in extreme pain.
I don’t think most effective way to convince a child of getting a child is through rational argument. Appearing really confident is important for convincing but being really confident for the sake of convincing others is not a good habit to have when you seek for the truth.
You don’t use rational argument because it’s the most effective way to convince a child, you use rational argument because it’s the most effective way to teach a child the use of rational argument. (which as a side benefit, eventually makes rational argument the most effective way to convince the child)
In general you are probably right but for LW parents this might be different as rationality-related traits are probably heritable that about the same level (0.6) than e.g. IQ. Judging from my sons (8, 10) I’d guess that they’d be able to follow the reasoning and likely given the choice decide pro-innoculation. But then they are not very squeamish to begin with and wouldn’t value a shot that bad.
I got one and took my young son to get one as well. Convincing a child of the benefit of getting a shot or nasal spray makes for an excellent lesson in rationality since you must convince the kid to accept immediate and certain pain in return for a moderately reduced chance of experiencing a larger amount of future pain.
I got the shot (for free via my insurance), and it was completely painless. I looked away from my arm to prevent tensing up, and I literally did not feel the needle go in. There was a little soreness later that day, but not much. Worth keeping in mind—getting the shot is not unpleasant.
Shots, including the flu shot, always cause me pain. I usually tell the person about to give me the shot not to stop if it looks like I’m in extreme pain.
I don’t think most effective way to convince a child of getting a child is through rational argument. Appearing really confident is important for convincing but being really confident for the sake of convincing others is not a good habit to have when you seek for the truth.
You don’t use rational argument because it’s the most effective way to convince a child, you use rational argument because it’s the most effective way to teach a child the use of rational argument. (which as a side benefit, eventually makes rational argument the most effective way to convince the child)
Kids notice these things! And not just the ‘smart’ ones.
In general you are probably right but for LW parents this might be different as rationality-related traits are probably heritable that about the same level (0.6) than e.g. IQ. Judging from my sons (8, 10) I’d guess that they’d be able to follow the reasoning and likely given the choice decide pro-innoculation. But then they are not very squeamish to begin with and wouldn’t value a shot that bad.