Only a psychologist thinks to ask why people laugh at jokes. – Someone (apparently)
A common error in trying to understand human behavior is to think something is explained because it is so intuitively familiar to you. The wrong answer to, ‘I wonder why people laugh at jokes?’ is, ‘They are funny duh’. This is an unrealistically obvious example; it can be harder to see. Why do we like art? Because it’s aesthetically pleasing. Why does sex exist? For reproduction. These are a popular variety of mind projection fallacy.
One thing that makes it much harder to see is emotional or moral overtones. A distinctive feature of morality is that it seems objectively true, so this isn’t surprising. e.g. if I say ‘I wonder why women evolved to be *so* upset about being raped?’ the wrong answer is ‘I can’t believe you just said that – rape is HORRIBLE!!!’. Why don’t humans let their disabled children die? Not ‘because they appreciate that that would be cruel’. Why do we want revenge when others have done us wrong? Not ‘because the others DESERVE IT!’ Why do humans hate incest? Not ‘because they aren’t completely depraved’.
Another thing that makes this error happen more is when the explanation is somewhat complicated even without explaining the key issue. This makes it less obvious that you haven’t said anything. Why do we enjoy some styles and features of music particularly? Because we have advanced as a civilization so much that we appreciate them. Fill this out with some more about how civilization has progressed and what some famous people have said about musical progression through time and nobody will notice you didn’t really answer.
Here’s a common combination of morality and apparent complication: Why do women hate being treated as instrumental to sexual pleasure? Because it objectifies them. Why do women hate being objectified? Because it makes people think of them as objects. Why don’t women like being thought of as objects? They get treated as objects. Why don’t women like being treated as objects? Objects are treated badly. Note that while we have now established that to be treated as instrumental to sexual pleasure is to be treated badly from a woman’s perspective, but since it was stated in the question that women hate it, this is hardly a step forward. If you feel very strongly that objectifying women is terrible, especially with some detail about how bad it is, each of these answers can seem explanatory.
Explanatory normality fallacy
A common error in trying to understand human behavior is to think something is explained because it is so intuitively familiar to you. The wrong answer to, ‘I wonder why people laugh at jokes?’ is, ‘They are funny duh’. This is an unrealistically obvious example; it can be harder to see. Why do we like art? Because it’s aesthetically pleasing. Why does sex exist? For reproduction. These are a popular variety of mind projection fallacy.
One thing that makes it much harder to see is emotional or moral overtones. A distinctive feature of morality is that it seems objectively true, so this isn’t surprising. e.g. if I say ‘I wonder why women evolved to be *so* upset about being raped?’ the wrong answer is ‘I can’t believe you just said that – rape is HORRIBLE!!!’. Why don’t humans let their disabled children die? Not ‘because they appreciate that that would be cruel’. Why do we want revenge when others have done us wrong? Not ‘because the others DESERVE IT!’ Why do humans hate incest? Not ‘because they aren’t completely depraved’.
Another thing that makes this error happen more is when the explanation is somewhat complicated even without explaining the key issue. This makes it less obvious that you haven’t said anything. Why do we enjoy some styles and features of music particularly? Because we have advanced as a civilization so much that we appreciate them. Fill this out with some more about how civilization has progressed and what some famous people have said about musical progression through time and nobody will notice you didn’t really answer.
Here’s a common combination of morality and apparent complication: Why do women hate being treated as instrumental to sexual pleasure? Because it objectifies them. Why do women hate being objectified? Because it makes people think of them as objects. Why don’t women like being thought of as objects? They get treated as objects. Why don’t women like being treated as objects? Objects are treated badly. Note that while we have now established that to be treated as instrumental to sexual pleasure is to be treated badly from a woman’s perspective, but since it was stated in the question that women hate it, this is hardly a step forward. If you feel very strongly that objectifying women is terrible, especially with some detail about how bad it is, each of these answers can seem explanatory.