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PoopMobile9000 t1_itoldrr wrote

Reply to comment by supercyberlurker in TIL that in a series of experiments in the 1950s, Solomon Asch asked a group of actors and a single test subject what the longest line was in a "vision test". The actors would intentionally answer incorrectly, causing the subject to also answer incorrectly, despite it being very obvious. by Amateur_Validator

Yep. If our old hunter-gatherer ancestor is in unfamiliar territory, and sees that everyone seems to be going a long, inconvenient route that avoids a certain cave entrance, I’m probably better off avoiding it too even if it doesn’t make sense to me.

Usually the common sense, conventional wisdom is correct. But when it misfires, it’s easy for the misfire to perpetuate itself indefinitely.

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ShalmaneserIII t1_itpf3uh wrote

They occasionally call this "Chesterton's Fence", after a passage from an essay by G.K. Chesterton.

Basically, if you don't see the point of a fence being in a location and want to take it down, that's not a good reason in itself. You need to know why the fence was put up in the first place. Someone had a reason to make the effort to put up the fence, and until you know why you don't know the consequences of taking it down.

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PoopMobile9000 t1_itpxpo5 wrote

That’s different. The concept I mentioned is “social proof” and about individuals instinctively copying the behavior of others. Chesterton’s fence is about not disrupting rules or systems without understanding where the rules came from.

(Ie, I learned about social proof in intro psych, and Chersterton’s fence in law school.)

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