Generally the better educated are more prone to irrational political opinions and political hysteria than the worse educated far from power. Why? In the field of political opinion they are more driven by fashion, a gang mentality, and the desire to pose about moral and political questions all of which exacerbate cognitive biases, encourage groupthink, and reduce accuracy. Those on average incomes are less likely to express political views to send signals; political views are much less important for signalling to one’s immediate in-group when you are on 20k a year. The former tend to see such questions in more general and abstract terms, and are more insulated from immediate worries about money. The latter tend to see such questions in more concrete and specific terms and ask ‘how does this affect me?’. The former live amid the emotional waves that ripple around powerful and tightly linked self-reinforcing networks. These waves rarely permeate the barrier around insiders and touch others.
Something for LWers to think about. Being smart can make you more susceptible to some biases.
the more educated are prone to irrational political opinions
I’m quite sure that this is wrong actually—that more educated folks still have better opinions about policy, but only weakly so. Bryan Caplan has pointed this out in his work on the irrationality of the common voter. It becomes right though when you control for rational judgment in private, non-political contexts—education greatly improves that and you would expect it to have the same effect in political judgments. But it doesn’t, really.
average incomes are less likely to express political opinions to send signals.
It’s often pointed out that lower-income folks tend to be politically apathetic, so to the extent that they do have opinions on policy you would expect these to be less influenced by signaling dynamics. But signaling is not the only source of error (involving both random noise and persistent bias) in political judgments!
And
Something for LWers to think about. Being smart can make you more susceptible to some biases.
Agree but Dominic is making a much stronger claim in this excerpt, and I wish he would provide more evidence. It is a big claim that
the more educated are prone to irrational political opinions
average incomes are less likely to express political opinions to send signals.
These are great anecdotes but have there been any studies indicating a link between social status and willingness to express political views?
I’m quite sure that this is wrong actually—that more educated folks still have better opinions about policy, but only weakly so. Bryan Caplan has pointed this out in his work on the irrationality of the common voter. It becomes right though when you control for rational judgment in private, non-political contexts—education greatly improves that and you would expect it to have the same effect in political judgments. But it doesn’t, really.
It’s often pointed out that lower-income folks tend to be politically apathetic, so to the extent that they do have opinions on policy you would expect these to be less influenced by signaling dynamics. But signaling is not the only source of error (involving both random noise and persistent bias) in political judgments!
In many cases yes I agree.
He argues that very few people, educated or not, actually have any strong factual or logical basis for their opinions.
But I think the more important point is that educated people do have some specific failure modes. From other sources
Hate to admit they are wrong
Over-complicate things
Tend to privilege theory over observation and simple heuristics.
Focus on being right versus winning.
Deny the existence of things they don’t understand.
Fail to communicate with people of average intelligence / typical mind fallacy.