[gonehome]

This is the default for any motivated reasoning where people are interested in a specific outcome (regardless of what's true): https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/too-good-to-check-a-pl...

It's hard work to fight against it, but the first step is recognizing it all over the place and in your own thinking.

Recognizing it and trying to correct for it is one of the core bits of the rationality community (imo).

[Tenoke]

I think it's also because many of us have seen extreme exaggerations on the dangers of cannabis that turned out to be wrong. It definitely take me years of using it to acknowledge the (lesser) negative effects after seeing how much of the negative things I was told about it as a kid were fake.

[gonehome]

Just because others have made the same mistake in the other direction doesn't mean it's good to do the same thing in pursuit of a different conclusion.

Skepticism is good, but if you find yourself preferring one outcome over another then you should be extra critical of stuff that supports your preferred outcome because you're more likely to want to give it a pass.

Similarly you should be more willing to entertain stuff that goes the other way because you're more likely to incorrectly dismiss something that's actually true.

[Tenoke]

I'm not saying it's good, I'm just giving another potent reason beyond self-interest.

[gonehome]

Yeah - I think we agree.