Philosophy 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 46: Financial Statement, University Of Waterloo, Fundamental Attribution Error
6 Aug 2020
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A common source of our beliefs is other people. It is a huge advantage that we don"t have to do everything ourselves. Animals know what they are able to work out on their own (with a few limited exceptions that mostly involve human trainers). We can know what anyone has learned and bothered to write down. Other people are such a valuable resource that we generally believe them, especially if they are close to us, family, friends, colleagues, etc. The only problem is that other people are subject to all the same biases we are. They embellish to be popular; they are often mistaken, perceptually or cognitively; they lie. So reasoning from the fact that someone we trust said something to the fact that it must be true is less reliable than we might suppose. These are common knowledge but experts believe them all to be false. One social factor that can lead to false beliefs is loyalty.
