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.
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.