I have upvoted more comments that are on −1 than I have downvoted ones on +1 (even taking into account that I upvote more than I downvote), but for a different reason: what looks to me like an asymmetry between unreasonable upvotes and unreasonable downvotes.
Most of the time when I do this, it is because I see something obviously reasonable sitting on −1, think “what the hell?”, and conclude it must be an ideological downvote where someone is voting someone else down for being visibly on the wrong team. And I don’t see obvious signs of ideological upvoting.
However, this may simply indicate that ideological downvoting is easier to spot, because downvoting is generally rarer (so if an OK-but-unremarkable comment is at −1 then that’s more evidence of malfeasance than if an OK-but-unremarkable comment is at +1). Which, in turn, is probably because of that psychological difference between positive and negative, and/or the idea that “negative scores mean your comment would be better off not existing”. So maybe, on sufficiently careful analysis, this comes down to the same effect after all :-).
Yeah, I’ve been downvoted to a negative number in Quora with a nice, detailed, science based article about why someone’s “recently recovered early-childhood memory” were probably not reliable enough for her to publicly accuse someone of molesting children and without first talking to a counselor and preferably a councilor who understood memory. It was all very reasonable and with ample evidence to support every statement.
I have upvoted more comments that are on −1 than I have downvoted ones on +1 (even taking into account that I upvote more than I downvote), but for a different reason: what looks to me like an asymmetry between unreasonable upvotes and unreasonable downvotes.
Most of the time when I do this, it is because I see something obviously reasonable sitting on −1, think “what the hell?”, and conclude it must be an ideological downvote where someone is voting someone else down for being visibly on the wrong team. And I don’t see obvious signs of ideological upvoting.
However, this may simply indicate that ideological downvoting is easier to spot, because downvoting is generally rarer (so if an OK-but-unremarkable comment is at −1 then that’s more evidence of malfeasance than if an OK-but-unremarkable comment is at +1). Which, in turn, is probably because of that psychological difference between positive and negative, and/or the idea that “negative scores mean your comment would be better off not existing”. So maybe, on sufficiently careful analysis, this comes down to the same effect after all :-).
Yeah, I’ve been downvoted to a negative number in Quora with a nice, detailed, science based article about why someone’s “recently recovered early-childhood memory” were probably not reliable enough for her to publicly accuse someone of molesting children and without first talking to a counselor and preferably a councilor who understood memory. It was all very reasonable and with ample evidence to support every statement.
I got down-voted to negative by a guy who said she should try a past-life regression and literally used the phrase “sort of a quantum parallel worlds reincarnation metaphysics with possibility of memory across various worlds and/or lives”. (Actually, if you guys could upvote me on that, I’m genuinely worried that other people with similar recovered images will find his advice and be unable to see my comment and that lives and relationships will be destroyed, the thread is https://www.quora.com/I-think-I-have-been-abused-sexually-as-a-child-I-just-have-some-faint-memory-picture-which-came-up-very-recently-in-my-mind-How-can-I-be-sure-I-am-a-20-year-old-female)