If the problem is that nice people are generalizing from their internal experiences, then why is it that even self-declared psychopaths I meet seem ~basically correctly calibrated about how likely others are to mess with them?
I suspect that the psychopath’s theory of mind is not “other people are generally nicer than me”, but “other people are generally stupid, or too weak to risk fighting with me”.
Motivation is invisible, skills are visible. So it is easy to be in denial about differences in motivation, and attribute behavior to the differences in skills.
Mr. Portman probably believed that some children forgot to pay for the chocolate bars, because he was aware that different people have different memory skills.
I suspect that the psychopath’s theory of mind is not “other people are generally nicer than me”, but “other people are generally stupid, or too weak to risk fighting with me”.
That is true, and it is indeed a bias, but it doesn’t change the fact that their assessment of whether others are going to hurt them seems basically well calibrated. The anecdata that needs to be explained is why nice people do not seem to be able to tell when others are going to take advantage of them, but mean people do. The posts’ offered reason is that generous impressions of others are advantageous for trust-building.
Mr. Portman probably believed that some children forgot to pay for the chocolate bars, because he was aware that different people have different memory skills.
I suspect that the psychopath’s theory of mind is not “other people are generally nicer than me”, but “other people are generally stupid, or too weak to risk fighting with me”.
Motivation is invisible, skills are visible. So it is easy to be in denial about differences in motivation, and attribute behavior to the differences in skills.
Mr. Portman probably believed that some children forgot to pay for the chocolate bars, because he was aware that different people have different memory skills.
That is true, and it is indeed a bias, but it doesn’t change the fact that their assessment of whether others are going to hurt them seems basically well calibrated. The anecdata that needs to be explained is why nice people do not seem to be able to tell when others are going to take advantage of them, but mean people do. The posts’ offered reason is that generous impressions of others are advantageous for trust-building.
This was the explanation he offered, yeah.