The I found the main points of the article interesting and fairly convincing but you seem to over-correct for correspondence bias when you say
“If the allegations about Wikipedia are true, they’re explained by ordinary human nature, not by extraordinary human nature”. Even if normal human behaviour leads to cultishness, why assume that individual psychological quirks didn’t have a relevant effect in a specific case?
It’s certainly possible to overcompensate for the fundamental attribution error.
This is what I think happens when people say things like “Stalin was just a product of his circumstances.” No, he was a manipulative, sadistic psychopath; his circumstances are what made him a world leader and mass murderer instead of a corrupt banker or serial killer.
But in this case, I do think that the admins of Wikipedia are humans of at least normal—if not in fact above-average—moral character, falling prey to their circumstances. Their behavior does not seem SO extreme, SO cruel, that it can’t be fit with what we know about normal human beings.
The I found the main points of the article interesting and fairly convincing but you seem to over-correct for correspondence bias when you say “If the allegations about Wikipedia are true, they’re explained by ordinary human nature, not by extraordinary human nature”. Even if normal human behaviour leads to cultishness, why assume that individual psychological quirks didn’t have a relevant effect in a specific case?
It’s certainly possible to overcompensate for the fundamental attribution error.
This is what I think happens when people say things like “Stalin was just a product of his circumstances.” No, he was a manipulative, sadistic psychopath; his circumstances are what made him a world leader and mass murderer instead of a corrupt banker or serial killer.
But in this case, I do think that the admins of Wikipedia are humans of at least normal—if not in fact above-average—moral character, falling prey to their circumstances. Their behavior does not seem SO extreme, SO cruel, that it can’t be fit with what we know about normal human beings.