RiverDad
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What happens when a preference cascade starts in the public sphere? What's a preference cascade?
The cascade occurs when people begin to realize that the Private Truth that they hold in opposition to the Public Lie is in fact held by most people and so they begin to adhere to the Public Lie less and less.
That distortion of public opinion played out last week with the firing of the Mozilla CEO. Is the acceptance of homosexual marriage a Public Lie or a Private Truth? Is pubic opinion being shaped in reaction to how people really feel or by how they're being coerced into feeling?
What happens though when the coercive tactics no longer work and Private Truths begin to be acknowledged in public? Look at France:
Preference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. . . A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change.
In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency.
In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency.
The cascade occurs when people begin to realize that the Private Truth that they hold in opposition to the Public Lie is in fact held by most people and so they begin to adhere to the Public Lie less and less.
That distortion of public opinion played out last week with the firing of the Mozilla CEO. Is the acceptance of homosexual marriage a Public Lie or a Private Truth? Is pubic opinion being shaped in reaction to how people really feel or by how they're being coerced into feeling?
What happens though when the coercive tactics no longer work and Private Truths begin to be acknowledged in public? Look at France:
As many as 35 percent of French people admit to being “quite” or “a little” racist, an annual report for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, revealed this week, suggesting that intolerance in France was on the rise.
And the 2013 end of year report makes for sober reading once again, with levels of intolerance apparently on the rise for the fourth year running and the number of French people concerned by immigration (16 percent) at the highest level since 2002.
And according to the BVA poll which the report is based on as many as 35 percent of French people admit to being “quite” or “a little” racist. In a survey of just over 1,000 people, nine percent said they were “quite” racist, which is an increase of two percentage points compared to the same survey in 2012. A further 26 percent admitted to being “a little” racist, which is an increase from 22 percent in 2012.
The poll was published in the week after the anti-immigration National Front (FN) party secured historic results in the local elections, picking up a record 11 towns. . . .
Tin said the most worrying stat from the report was the fact that six out ten French people said “certain behaviour can sometimes justify racist reactions”, which he says “makes racist opinions excusable”.
And the 2013 end of year report makes for sober reading once again, with levels of intolerance apparently on the rise for the fourth year running and the number of French people concerned by immigration (16 percent) at the highest level since 2002.
And according to the BVA poll which the report is based on as many as 35 percent of French people admit to being “quite” or “a little” racist. In a survey of just over 1,000 people, nine percent said they were “quite” racist, which is an increase of two percentage points compared to the same survey in 2012. A further 26 percent admitted to being “a little” racist, which is an increase from 22 percent in 2012.
The poll was published in the week after the anti-immigration National Front (FN) party secured historic results in the local elections, picking up a record 11 towns. . . .
Tin said the most worrying stat from the report was the fact that six out ten French people said “certain behaviour can sometimes justify racist reactions”, which he says “makes racist opinions excusable”.