Motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and AI risk theory (opens in new tab)

Of the fifty-odd biases discovered by Kahneman, Tversky, and their successors, forty-nine are cute quirks, and one is destroying civilization. This last one is confirmation bias.- From Scott Alexander's review of Julia Galef's The Scout Mindset. Alexander goes on to argue that this bias is the source of polarization in society, which is distorting our beliefs and setting us at each other's throats. How could someone believe such different things unless they're either really stupid or lying to...