I’m not sure I’m parsing this properly—it sounds to me like you’re saying that seeing a very low score along with the option to lower it further makes you less likely to actually downvote, because it feels like ganging up on someone, and more likely to upvote it, compared to not seeing the existing score?
Pretty much. And yeah, looks like I’m saying that I like behave the opposite way that I expect the most of the group to behave. But then again, I’m imagining both reacting more to a big, shiny sign saying “Look! This is what Us People are expected to think about this thing!” than the actual thing itself. I’m just generally reacting to anything with that sort of mindless, mob-like tone with “screw You People.”
Does it change anything if you specifically focus on the fact that upvotes and downvotes are supposed to mean “I want to see more/less like this” rather than “I think this is good/bad” or “I think this is right/wrong” or “I like/dislike the point being made”?
It’s easy enough to imagine that when I’m the one doing or receiving the voting. When I’m seeing this stuff unfold elsewhere, I need to imagine that the downvoters and the downvotees are also seeing things in that way. Given that this requires extra thought, and the simple, instant interpretation is upvote good, downvote bad, I’m not having a very easy time imagining that’s the case.
Also given how human group psychology works, I’m not sure there’s that much of a difference there. Saying that you’d like to see less of the sort of thing the author implicitly thought people are interested in seeing by posting it doesn’t sound like that much less of a rebuke than just saying the thing was bad or wrong. You could probably make a case for it being a bigger rebuke, since it implies the author is too incompetent to figure out what’s good content, and the social inferior whom the downvoters can pass judgment on, rather than someone with equal social standing having a dispute with the others on whether something is good and right or bad and wrong.
Pretty much. And yeah, looks like I’m saying that I like behave the opposite way that I expect the most of the group to behave. But then again, I’m imagining both reacting more to a big, shiny sign saying “Look! This is what Us People are expected to think about this thing!” than the actual thing itself. I’m just generally reacting to anything with that sort of mindless, mob-like tone with “screw You People.”
It’s easy enough to imagine that when I’m the one doing or receiving the voting. When I’m seeing this stuff unfold elsewhere, I need to imagine that the downvoters and the downvotees are also seeing things in that way. Given that this requires extra thought, and the simple, instant interpretation is upvote good, downvote bad, I’m not having a very easy time imagining that’s the case.
Also given how human group psychology works, I’m not sure there’s that much of a difference there. Saying that you’d like to see less of the sort of thing the author implicitly thought people are interested in seeing by posting it doesn’t sound like that much less of a rebuke than just saying the thing was bad or wrong. You could probably make a case for it being a bigger rebuke, since it implies the author is too incompetent to figure out what’s good content, and the social inferior whom the downvoters can pass judgment on, rather than someone with equal social standing having a dispute with the others on whether something is good and right or bad and wrong.