It occurs to me that the betrayal rates might not be too dissimilar between the super nice and overtly bad. We're just more susceptible to being betrayed by the super nice because we're more trusting of them, so that both the betrayal stands out more from the nice and we afford fewer opportunities for betrayal by the overtly bad.
The lead scientist has a very Romanian name, and so may know what he's talking about from real information - his or his parents'. An estimated one-third of all Romanians provided information to the Securitate before the revolution. Much of this was probably only a few comments, spread out over many years, but still - it's a big number.
It's an interesting experiment design. The article does note possible limitations, but what jumped out at me was that this does not measure the trustworthiness of people who are always excessively polite or friendly, but that a change to this behavior signaled impending betrayal. Both could be true of course. Yet I think change itself has long been noted as a marked for deceit among interrogators. The voluble person who suddenly clams up, the quiet person suddenly talkative, these are warning signs.
In my HOA, I have noticed that people who try to be friends with everyone will punt on taking what could be considered controversial stands, for fear of offending someone or fear of offending the majority.
7 comments:
It occurs to me that the betrayal rates might not be too dissimilar between the super nice and overtly bad. We're just more susceptible to being betrayed by the super nice because we're more trusting of them, so that both the betrayal stands out more from the nice and we afford fewer opportunities for betrayal by the overtly bad.
Eric Hines
I mean, I personally wouldn't fall prey to that, because I don't trust sickly-sweet people any further than I could spit a rat.
Smiling faces... sometimes they don't tell the truth.
The lead scientist has a very Romanian name, and so may know what he's talking about from real information - his or his parents'. An estimated one-third of all Romanians provided information to the Securitate before the revolution. Much of this was probably only a few comments, spread out over many years, but still - it's a big number.
It's an interesting experiment design. The article does note possible limitations, but what jumped out at me was that this does not measure the trustworthiness of people who are always excessively polite or friendly, but that a change to this behavior signaled impending betrayal. Both could be true of course. Yet I think change itself has long been noted as a marked for deceit among interrogators. The voluble person who suddenly clams up, the quiet person suddenly talkative, these are warning signs.
"I mean, I personally wouldn't fall prey to that, because I don't trust sickly-sweet people any further than I could spit a rat."
I guess we would get along fine.......!
It seems plenty of us here think alike on this issue. Super-nicey-nice is a red flag for sure.
In my HOA, I have noticed that people who try to be friends with everyone will punt on taking what could be considered controversial stands, for fear of offending someone or fear of offending the majority.
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