June, 2009

Concluding Remarks

by Robert Wright
The Conversation
June 25th, 2009

Thanks yet again to all three respondents for a stimulating discussion. I’m sure my closing comments won’t do justice to your closing contributions, but I’ll try to respond to the most salient points. I’m delighted to hear Richard Joyce agree that we all tend to form a negative image of threatening people and a positive [...]

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Distinguishing Friends from Enemies

by Richard Joyce
The Conversation
June 24th, 2009

All sorts of things can affect one’s tendency to like or dislike other individuals. Some are unexpected. A subliminal hint of lemon odor can influence one’s evaluation of a stranger’s likeability (Li et al. 2007). Inducing a feeling of disgust–by placing a dirty kleenex nearby, for example—can boost the severity of a negative moral judgment [...]

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Compassion and Aggression

by Jonathan Sheehan
The Conversation
June 24th, 2009

Adam Smith once commented that people, “though naturally sympathetic, feel little for another, with whom they have no particular connection, in comparison of what they feel for themselves.” He was onto something there.  No doubt, as Wright suggests, it is much more difficult to think sympathetically about scholar A, whose theories and ambitions recklessly threaten [...]

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Judging Others Is Partly a Social Process

by Timur Kuran
The Conversation
June 23rd, 2009

Robert Wright asks us to reflect on whether we notice a professional rival’s flaws more readily than we notice those of an ally. In presenting the scenario he characterizes the relationship with the rival as zero-sum and that with the ally as non-zero-sum. Various psychological mechanisms make us particularly receptive to evidence of blemishes in [...]

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A Plea for Introspection

by Robert Wright
The Conversation
June 22nd, 2009

Thanks to all three of you for your latest round of feedback. So far we haven’t spent much time on what I view as the heart of my essay, and I’m wondering if I can lure you three into an introspective thought experiment that bears directly on it. First, a recap: I argued that when [...]

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Perceiving Gain Is Itself a Social Process

by Timur Kuran
The Conversation
June 20th, 2009

In his reaction to Robert Wright’s thoughtful response, Jonathan Sheehan takes issue with Wright’s assumption that “all players are free to define gain for themselves.” I, too, will critique that assumption, though from a different angle. The processes that prevent us from trying to achieve particular gains may also distort perceptions about available opportunities. This [...]

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On Just So Stories

by Richard Joyce
The Conversation
June 19th, 2009

I agree with Wright that there’s a time and a place for “tossing out a hypothesis on the basis of little evidence and then letting people argue about it.” What is vital, though, is that in subsequent discussion the conjectural nature of the hypothesis is not forgotten. This is the trap that sociobiologists of yore [...]

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The Many Games People Play

by Jonathan Sheehan
The Conversation
June 18th, 2009

Let’s think a bit more about this game idea. If you assume, as Wright says he does, that “all players are free to define gain for themselves,” then you are making things too easy on yourself, I think. In the first instance, Wright’s book is aimed at persuading us that in fact we do (or [...]

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