#psychology #lizard-brain #bias #persuasion #fallacy

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We tend to follow what perceived authority is telling us.

Appeal to authority is created by using to opinion of someone in an authoritative (or perceived as such) position as proof of that opinion. This is one of the useful shortcuts to limit the amount of reasoning required to formulate opinions, by reusing someone else's. However this also introduces a risk that the opinion itself might be manipulated, that the authority might only be perceived, and as such constitutes a level of persuasion and a tool of manipulation.

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Cargo cult is a form of appeal to authority - people doing what someone else they saw succeeding in their desired outcome was doing, without understanding the underlying reasons.

Limits of expertise even actual experts might in fact have limited reasoning on something because of a too narrow field of expertise

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