tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7340549211625160136.post6007279542154004869..comments2022-03-26T20:09:45.388-07:00Comments on The Art and Science of Cognitive Engineering: On Anchor Collapse and Actually Decidingjimmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02321898801267236687noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7340549211625160136.post-73254416275216060662016-01-21T14:16:16.921-08:002016-01-21T14:16:16.921-08:00Since it's not about the words but the emotion...Since it's not about the words but the emotional charge behind them, you don't have to have an explanation for why "spider" is a scary category in order to weigh the terms and see what happens for any specific question. "I want to get back inside but there's a spider in the doorway". Who cares why you don't like spiders, fact is you don't - and you can put a value on this fear. You can still answer "What do I want more? To avoid my (apparently unnecessary?) discomfort about spiders or to get back inside?". If you decide to go inside it'll be scary, but the scariness won't exactly be a "bad" thing.<br /><br />However, if you're not happy with your level of fear for spiders, you might want to actually not be afraid rather than simply being okay with being afraid and doing it anyway (though that *can* cause the fear to melt away on its own, in some cases). If that's the goal, I'd focus more on the question "Are spiders worth fearing?" and the related questions that will bring up ("can it hurt me?" "how likely is that?" "how hard is it to avoid?" etc). It might be a weird one if you can't access the reasoning behind it, but you can still work with it. "I don't know why I'm afraid". Okay, so is that fear likely to be well grounded in opaque wisdom of some sort, or is it likely ignorable nonsense? Are you willing to plow over this Chesterton's fence?<br /><br />The chain of answering (if it turns out to be your congruent choice, that is) "I am willing to discard any wisdom that may be in this fear" to "spiders are not dangerous or worth avoiding" should lead you to where you can answer "so next time there's a spider in the doorway you can just walk in anyway and not even be afraid?" with a congruent "yes".<br /><br />The next couple posts (which will be published soon/soonish) are kinda related. jimmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02321898801267236687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7340549211625160136.post-75179340638303672932016-01-20T14:37:40.494-08:002016-01-20T14:37:40.494-08:00What about the case where there is no clear "...What about the case where there is no clear "negative argument" for a phobia? I was terrified of spiders when I was younger, and there was never any obvious reason for it -- I was never bit by a spider, I didn't live in an area with any significant poisonous spiders, and I could never figure out what, specifically, I was afraid of other than the entire package of "spider". Is there a way to solve a conflict like that, where there's no actual _conflict_ to collapse?Lanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09512264361528101095noreply@blogger.com