Why Do They *Think* That?
INTRO: What this Essay Will/Won’t Cover
Someone recently asked on Twitter why people seem more upset about others visibly protecting themselves from Covid (which is perceived as doing “too much”) than they are about the death and disability that can result from infection.
Being me, I chimed in, and then was asked to elaborate. As I said Over There, a serious answer is more than a Twitter thread, or even an essay; it’s a book, and plenty of books have been written about how and why people think obviously wonky things. (I’ll cite a few at the end of this piece, for those wanting a deeper dive.) But there are some obvious cognitive heuristics, biases and fallacies that come into play, and if people want to know just a bit about them (but don’t want to learn it from Wikipedia, which does a pretty good job with this stuff), I…
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Alexander Riccio 