I don’t have the data to answer that question, but the fact that we talk about cognitive bias a lot isn’t good evidence that average members of our community are exceptionally effective at dealing with any particular bias. Witness akrasia.
I think that’s fairly likely, but some degree of general improvement doesn’t necessarily imply exceptional skill relative to the general population if we have some reason to think that the base rates might be different. In this case, I think we might reasonably expect a community focused on amelioration of bias to attract people who see themselves as having trouble with one bias or another, and akrasia (and trouble with executive function more generally) seems to be one of the more commonly problematic issues within our demographic. We also have data saying that knowledge of bias doesn’t translate directly to reduction of bias, though we’re working on that.
Othering as per bogus’ post is a separate issue, one that we haven’t dealt much with directly, but at the very least I don’t think it’s obviously true that our constituents are unusually good at dealing with it. Geekdom’s pretty homogeneous.
I don’t have the data to answer that question, but the fact that we talk about cognitive bias a lot isn’t good evidence that average members of our community are exceptionally effective at dealing with any particular bias. Witness akrasia.
I know I have considerably less of an akrasia problem now, in no small part due to reading things from here and from hacker news (ycombinator).
I think it’s fair to say average members of the community are better at recognizing bias in theselves. I’m not sure about dealing with it.
I think that’s fairly likely, but some degree of general improvement doesn’t necessarily imply exceptional skill relative to the general population if we have some reason to think that the base rates might be different. In this case, I think we might reasonably expect a community focused on amelioration of bias to attract people who see themselves as having trouble with one bias or another, and akrasia (and trouble with executive function more generally) seems to be one of the more commonly problematic issues within our demographic. We also have data saying that knowledge of bias doesn’t translate directly to reduction of bias, though we’re working on that.
Othering as per bogus’ post is a separate issue, one that we haven’t dealt much with directly, but at the very least I don’t think it’s obviously true that our constituents are unusually good at dealing with it. Geekdom’s pretty homogeneous.