[ExI] Reinforcing our Prejudices

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org 
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of 
> Lee Corbin
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:44 PM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: [ExI] Reinforcing our Prejudices
> 
> Damien points out
> 
> 
> > This is hardly news, but it's not a bad pop summary of in-built 
> > cognitive limitations:
> > 
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/opinion/17kristof.html?th&emc=th>
> > 
> > <We seek out information that reinforces our prejudices....
> > 
> > This resistance to information that doesn't mesh with our 
> > preconceived beliefs afflicts both liberals and conservatives...
>

>  That observation would be entirely dependent upon how the orientation of
the blog is defined... spike
 
> Perhaps reinforcing the researchers' own biases? ... Lee

This gave me a hell of an idea.  An individual cannot objectively decide if
a blog is conservative or liberal, for her own biases are inescapable.  But
a group may be able to do so.  Here is my experiment.  Suggest any number of
blogs, websites, news sites, etc that can be accessed by internet.  Then
choose one or the other: more liberal or more conservative.  Let's use 0 for
more liberal and 1 for more conservative, since 0 is to the left of 1.  Rate
as many or as few as you want on the list, or rate the ones you already know
about.  For instance, my list might be:

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php  (1)
http://www.electoral-vote.com/  (0)
http://victorhanson.com/index.html  (1)
http://www.dailykos.com/  (0)

Post them to me offlist if you wish, or posting here would be OK, but it
might influence others' ratings.  I will compile them into a spreadsheet and
calculate a rating that can be reproduced by other groups.

spike