The faintly depressing human tendency to seek out and spend ...

Here's the thing about Tortas

12/30/24

Date: December 30th, 2024 4:20 PM Author: Here's the thing about Tortas The faintly depressing human tendency to seek out and spend time with those most similar to us is known in social science as ‘homophily’, and it shapes our views, and our lives, in ways we’re barely aware of. It explains why, if you know the political positions of a person’s friends, you can have a very good guess at their own. It’s also why, say, creationists imagine that the debate over evolution is an active and unresolved one: in their social circles, it is. We long to have our opinions confirmed, not challenged, and thus, as the Harvard media researcher Ethan Zuckerman puts it, ‘Homophily causes ignorance.’ (It also makes us more extreme, studies of ‘group polarisation’ indicate. A group of conservatives, given the chance to discuss politics among themselves, will grow more conservative.) Even priding yourself on being open-minded is no defence if your natural, homophilic inclination is to hang out with other people like you, celebrating your love of diversity. Technology risks making things worse: on the Internet, most obviously, it’s possible to exist almost entirely within a feedback loop shaped by your own preferences. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5656908&forum_id=2).#48502271)