People in third world countries are certainly less well educated, but I don’t think it’s clear that either the leaders or the general populace are notably less rational than people in the first world on average. They have a lot less to work with, after all, and while first world voters and leaders make plenty of bad decisions, they have a safety net of prosperity to cushion them from any disasters resulting.
We’ve got people in the first world claiming that condoms are morally wrong, that they don’t prevent HIV, that AIDS is not caused by HIV, and so on. Those claiming that they don’t prevent HIV or that AIDS is not caused by it are marginalized because the populace is better educated, and probably also because it’s not so big a problem here as to motivate simply hiding from it. The populace in the third world is less educated, and so has less reason to see this as a defiance of evidence, and the leaders both tend to be less well educated than those in the first world, and have more problems that are likely to be intractable, and so they’re motivated to question the data. When you look at how recently first world politicians have been denying anthropogenic climate change, it doesn’t look like we set a much higher standard, our failures simply aren’t as visible.
“certain kinds of cognitive or knowledge deficits or cultures that are not conducive to civilization working very well”
it’s not really less-wrongian irrationality that is the problem, as such. Irrationality is the wrong word. It’s something more general than that: it’s whether the individuals’ brains are wired in a way that is conducive to civilization working well. Irrationality is a special case.
If a government is run on bribes to the extent that people with low and middle level jobs have to collect bribes because that’s the only way they can pay the bribes required by their superiors, it doesn’t sound like a problem with the way their brains are wired.
Bribes, let us not forget, are a “conspiracy against the public” , i.e. they are negative sum.
That people support a regime where negative sum games are par for the course is, in fact, a problem with the way their brains are wired. In the first world we go to great lengths to emphasize the immorality of bribary and corruption, and to punish it.
We understand a lot more about the relationship between ideas and behavior than we understand about the relationship between brain wiring (by which I assume you mean the way neurons are connected) and behavior.
People in third world countries are certainly less well educated, but I don’t think it’s clear that either the leaders or the general populace are notably less rational than people in the first world on average. They have a lot less to work with, after all, and while first world voters and leaders make plenty of bad decisions, they have a safety net of prosperity to cushion them from any disasters resulting.
look for: african countries, and statements of their respective health ministers about aids and/or condoms
We’ve got people in the first world claiming that condoms are morally wrong, that they don’t prevent HIV, that AIDS is not caused by HIV, and so on. Those claiming that they don’t prevent HIV or that AIDS is not caused by it are marginalized because the populace is better educated, and probably also because it’s not so big a problem here as to motivate simply hiding from it. The populace in the third world is less educated, and so has less reason to see this as a defiance of evidence, and the leaders both tend to be less well educated than those in the first world, and have more problems that are likely to be intractable, and so they’re motivated to question the data. When you look at how recently first world politicians have been denying anthropogenic climate change, it doesn’t look like we set a much higher standard, our failures simply aren’t as visible.
I repeat:
“certain kinds of cognitive or knowledge deficits or cultures that are not conducive to civilization working very well”
it’s not really less-wrongian irrationality that is the problem, as such. Irrationality is the wrong word. It’s something more general than that: it’s whether the individuals’ brains are wired in a way that is conducive to civilization working well. Irrationality is a special case.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re claiming here.
If a government is run on bribes to the extent that people with low and middle level jobs have to collect bribes because that’s the only way they can pay the bribes required by their superiors, it doesn’t sound like a problem with the way their brains are wired.
Bribes, let us not forget, are a “conspiracy against the public” , i.e. they are negative sum.
That people support a regime where negative sum games are par for the course is, in fact, a problem with the way their brains are wired. In the first world we go to great lengths to emphasize the immorality of bribary and corruption, and to punish it.
Why frame it as a matter of brain wiring rather than as holding false beliefs?
Because false beliefs are a special case of “brain not wired correctly”. And the latter covers other important factors, such as:
cultural mores surrounding how things ought to be run, e.g. democracy, upholding integrity of institutions, free markets, rule of law
lower/higher IQ
lower/higher cognitive reflectiveness
religiosity and anti-science tendencies
loyalty or lack thereof to the nation-state,as opposed to the tribe
We understand a lot more about the relationship between ideas and behavior than we understand about the relationship between brain wiring (by which I assume you mean the way neurons are connected) and behavior.