“ In this case, at it's face, to see a statement that Airbnb is collecting data to investigate if their platform is being used for discrimination - and then reach the conclusion that the most logical reason that Airbnb is collecting data is not because they want to know if their platform is being used to discriminate, but that instead it's just a ruse; they don't care and really just want to collect facial data in order to look like they care about discrimination to gain some side benefit.”
This is a good model of most human behavior though. Creating elaborate systems of social norms then covertly coordinating on how to evade them or politically argue about how some group gets punished for violating them, while another group gets to violate the norms but reap benefits.
The economist Robin Hanson has developed a pretty comprehensive social science body of theory under the name “homo hypocritus” for this and uses it to explain a lot of behaviors (see just four examples below).
It’s totally reasonable to disagree with Hanson’s theory, but I think you are going way too far to treat it almost like paranoia or conspiracy theories or something.
In fact I think given the way corporate scandals, dark patterns, rampant privacy violations, etc. are so egregiously common and often go unpunished, it should be the norm to assume harmful intent from corporations unless proven otherwise. Classic studies like Moral Mazes would seem to confirm this.
Comments
This is a good model of most human behavior though. Creating elaborate systems of social norms then covertly coordinating on how to evade them or politically argue about how some group gets punished for violating them, while another group gets to violate the norms but reap benefits.
The economist Robin Hanson has developed a pretty comprehensive social science body of theory under the name “homo hypocritus” for this and uses it to explain a lot of behaviors (see just four examples below).
It’s totally reasonable to disagree with Hanson’s theory, but I think you are going way too far to treat it almost like paranoia or conspiracy theories or something.
In fact I think given the way corporate scandals, dark patterns, rampant privacy violations, etc. are so egregiously common and often go unpunished, it should be the norm to assume harmful intent from corporations unless proven otherwise. Classic studies like Moral Mazes would seem to confirm this.
Examples
- https://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/07/13/robin-hanson/who-car...
- http://www.overcomingbias.com/2013/08/inequality-is-about-gr...
- http://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson/showcare.pdf
- https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/robin-hanson-on-lyin...