Let's Talk Virtue Signaling with Dr Cameron Murray
Dr Cameron Murray returns to Discernable to talk virtue signaling and group psychology. As an economist specialising in human behaviour, corruption and property, he conducts research and experiments on the ‘groupish’ behaviour of humans and how those groups are formed, maintained, and dismantled.
A key ingredient of any human ‘group’, ‘tribe’ or ‘crowd’ is the signals they employ and spread to new converts. Group ‘signaling’ explains much of the pandemic reaction we witness today in both government and populations, especially as both health experts and governments openly admit that science is not the determining factor of their policies. The latest admission from NSW and VIC figures is that the performance art of QR code check-ins helps to soothe the anxious in our community, so even though they are now ‘useless’, we should continue the theatre anyway.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/27/qr-code-check-ins-useless-in-australias-omicron-wave-but-experts-urge-for-them-to-stay
‘Groups’ form around these sort of signaling behaviours precisely because groups use signals, and signals create groups. Just like Victoria’s ‘creeping assumption’ that killed ~800 people in 2020, the current circular feedback loop is a fertile nursery for the many ‘sides’ you see society divided into today.
So then what are we to do in this groupish world? Matt discusses with Cameron the best ways to see, to form, and to dismantle groups in the name of classical science, academia, logic and reason.
Watch this interview: https://youtu.be/lMVhEO_YuCs
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DR CAMERON MURRAY
https://twitter.com/drcameronmurray
https://gameofmates.com
https://theconversation.com/the-singapore-inspired-idea-for-using-super-for-housing-that-could-cut-costs-50-174401
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5:35 Virtue signaling versus logical thinking and risk assessments
9:32 Classic ‘group’ behaviour
11:27 Signaling is a biological mechanism built into all humans
13:50 Clearing up the Joe Rogan and Josh Szeps argument
16:34 ABC: Experts change their tune when the cameras turn off
18:20 Own echo-chambers: an inescapable reality
21:21 The miraculous transformation of Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth
23:28 Can we succeed in life without signaling and without joining a group?
31:42 ‘Virus gonna virus’
36:02 Confirmation bias: ‘who are the most hesitant of vaccines?’
38:58 Fragile groups – those without metanarratives
42:40 Classical Academia – how did open debate ever coalesce into a group?
48:30 Solving Australia’s collapsing home ownership rate: “Housemate”
55:05 The problem with trusting the government again
1:01:40 ‘Superannuation is terrible’
1:02:36 Saying something out loud to give others permission to follow
1:07:57 The paradox of leadership – betraying your followers
1:10:22 Create an environment where disagreement brings the group closer together
1:10:50 The political incentives and polls gave us the current lockdown culture
1:13:50 93% vaccination rate is not accurate when mandates exist
1:16:23 Predicting the future in Australia – the ‘theatre’ will continue
1:17:50 ‘We all act as if vaccines don’t work while we say that they do’
1:19:22 Logic does not have to win in the end
1:21:09 The Covid-19 ‘performance’ may never end
1:22:25 Australia’s quarantine camps
1:24:05 Cultural dynamics evolving over time
1:24:58 Why do Australians live so long?
1:26:30 People change their minds socially, not logically
1:28:01 Over-hearing Joe Rogan on the streets of Australia
1:30:58 Virtue signaling – it is based on Aristotle’s ‘virtue ethics’
1:34:21 Why virtue signaling is accepted in society
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