Day 157

Probably the number one reason I'm skeptical of pollsof all sorts is that people often don't have very strong beliefs about things. I remember once, reading a study in moral philosophy about two separate polls given to groups of people regarding a moral situation, except each poll was phrased differently. It was some situation about administering a cure to a group of people, many of whom might die if left untreated. But the cure was also deadly to a small number. Anyway, respondants of the poll that phrased the act of curing as "saving 80%" overwhelmingly reported that the cure was the right thing to do, while respondants of the poll that phrased the act of curing as "killing 20%" reported in larger numbers that curing was the wrong thing to do.

Are we this malleable morally? That study speaks strongly to the conclusion that a mere semantic difference can tip our views about a difficult situation. That is disconcerting to say the least.

But then I got to thinking. Of coursesemantic differences sway us easily. Whole industries (look at the salesman) push their workers to be uppy, to ask consumers questions that have positive answers, aos so forth. Denny's insisted its servers smile and say hi to anybody within 5 feet, at all times (not that we did, but they sure wanted us to). The whole self-help book genre focuses on positivity, positive thinking, positive attitudes, positive everything.

And on the other end, negative imagery and semantics push us away from people and ideas. Political attack ads use dark music, dark lighting, sinister voices, and the like. Funerals play music in the minor keys.

So fair enough, I suppose. Look back at the moral dilemma... who wants to kill a bunch of people??? Nobody. But everybody wants to save a bunch of people.

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