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In January I wrote: post Inspired by economist Brian Caplan's writings You Won't Stampede Me: An Essay on Nonconformism (He summarizes the theme here). Although I agree with much of Brian's praise for nonconformism, I have outlined three types of situations in which conformism is often a useful heuristic: 1) social norms about issues that we don't really care about; ) Following the norms and traditions of established institutions Voluntary (rather than forced) interactions in markets and civil society allow people to “vote with their feet” and 3) allow experts to outperform the general public. Follow experts in situations where they are also likely to have better insight. Brian is now We responded accordingly to these points.. It turns out that he generally agrees that conformism is often helpful in these three situations. He just thinks they rarely happen. I believe they are more common than he thinks.
Regarding my point #1, Brian says:
I basically agree, but I disagree that it „comes up often.“ Elijah's scenario requires that (a) those around him care; a lot (b) about an issue even though you care very little about it; However, in any society there is a very small list of issues that other people take very seriously.Considering this high hurdle, how often you Coincidence, indifference, or something close to that?
In this case, I don't think it's necessary for people around you to care. a lot„They just need to be careful enough to impose some sort of social sanction on people who violate the norm in question. If you disagree with the norm but don't actually care much about it, Conformism is often rational, and I think this situation will come at some point.'' Always be conscious, especially if you are a dissident who tends to question tradition and conventional wisdom.
For example, I never saw a good reason to switch from using „black“ to „African American.“ However, once the latter became the norm in academic and intellectual writing, I began to primarily follow it in my own work. Because I didn't really care much about this terminology issue and concluded it wasn't worth alienating readers. These days, „black“ (or „black“ with a capital B) is back in fashion, and I've quietly changed my own usage.
I now feel a little stronger that „Latinx“ is a bad word. therefore, Upcoming article on how foot voting benefits HispanicsI've included a brief explanation of why I don't use it.
Brian's response to my point 2:
Of course, but the key insight of Nonconformists is: „Don't be afraid to vote with your feet.“ Foot voting doesn't work well when the fit is high…
If you are new to the institution and have little knowledge of how it works, good advice is to „wait and see“. But how often does this exception occur? pace Hume, by the time you reach adulthood, experience in familiar institutions becomes a good guide to unfamiliar institutions. What is true at GMU is essentially true at UT. As a precaution, we may recommend waiting a month to see how things go. But after waiting and seeing, why keep putting off the same foolish actions?
Foot voting works well even when the fit is high. In that world, most people conform to the norms of the organization or group to which they belong. But you can still vote with your feet for groups with different norms.
On the other hand, I believe that people often find themselves in new organizations, especially when they often change jobs and careers, as in modern society. Even if you stay in the same field for the rest of your life, different employers in the same industry can have very different organizational cultures.
Brian paid tribute to the experts and said:
In absolute terms, Ilya's position towards experts is very high. NonConformist. Don't trust experts if they display strong political bias, strong financial incentives to reach approved answers, or stray from their area of expertise. It's good advice, but it raises deep doubts about almost everyone who claims to be an expert on a hot topic.
Whether my position is „very misfit“ depends on what you compare it to. This is less conformist than „always following the experts,'' but compared to the growing tendency (including in some libertarian circles) to deny respect for „establishment'' experts altogether. It's quite accommodating.
I would also like to add that the issue of respect for experts is not limited to „high-profile issues.“ This question constantly comes up in the many decisions we make almost every day, including food, healthcare, investment decisions, education, and many other issues.
Finally, Brian argues that intellectuals are so conformist that they probably don't really need advice outlining the ways in which conformism is beneficial.
I know intellectuals. There are many intellectuals. An army of intellectuals. The majority are very Conformist. They often hold views that are unpopular with the broader public, but only because they slavishly follow their own intellectual subculture.
It is true that intellectuals are often conformist when it comes to issues salient within their subcultures. For example, left-wing intellectuals often follow „woke“ norms regarding issues of race and gender. But even in a subculture, it seems to me that intellectuals are more likely than the average person to disobey or ignore other less obvious social norms. This may be because intellectuals care less about such norms, or because they tend to have relatively poor social skills (like typical nerds). But his 25 years of experience in academia and intellectual circles lead me to conclude that intellectuals are actually less malleable than the average person in many ways.
That said, both my generalizations and Brian's about intellectuals are based on speculation from personal experience rather than systematic evidence. To really solve this problem, we need systematic data. Perhaps with survey data and empirical evidence, we might be able to get a better idea of what a conformist intellectual actually looks like.
In summary, there is a lot to be said about different kinds of nonconformism. I'm not as hostile to conformism as Brian. Nevertheless, I am far more sympathetic to nonconformism than the average person. But the audience for this blog and many of my other works is disproportionately made up of academics, intellectuals, liberals, and others who tend to be suspicious of conformism. This electorate could occasionally use a reminder of why conformism isn't all bad.