Mike StevensMay 8, 2023
Bastian Allgeier

A while ago, I read about the psycholgical effect that kicks in when someone tries to fight for a good cause, but then makes a tiny mistake.

We are very hard on hypocrisy because our brains like when things add up.

I.e. a climate activist with a plastic cup triggers much harder than Elon taking a 5 minute flight in his private jet every other day.

The first feels wrong, while the second just meets our expectations.

I can't stop seeng this everywhere ever since.

May 8, 2023 at 9:24amElk
Show threadDaniel PaveyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier that's super interesting... I see that all the time...
Show threadDaniel PaveyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier you don't still have the source for that do you??
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@danielhpavey I'm searching for it, but I can't really remember if it was really in an article or rather in a podcast. The explanation made so much sense though. If I find it again, I will share it here.
Show threadDaniel PaveyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier thank you so much for looking. I appreciate it 🤗
Show threadsbestbierMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier @danielhpavey I think you my be talking about “hypocrisy bias”. Hypocrisy bias refers to the tendency for people to judge others more harshly for failing to practice what they preach, even if the underlying message or cause is still valid. This bias is rooted in the belief that people who advocate for a particular behavior or principle should themselves adhere to it, and failing to do so makes them hypocritical or insincere.
Show threadFladdleMay 9, 2023
@sbestbier @bastianallgeier @danielhpavey As a child, I wondered why my father, a committed communist, owned a house and worked a salaried job. Probably a pretty normal question to have, especially as a child. The answer, I think, is that he lived in a capitalist society and wasn’t prepared to risk the whole family’s well-being inside that system.
Show threadVärldens bästa Kille™May 28, 2023
@danielhpavey @bastianallgeier Pretty basic brand theory. Managing expectations. That kinda thing.
Show threadMarcelMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier The first also gives you an excuse to not even try to be better while the second is something you’d never have to give up yourself. As always: People trying to defend their identity.
Show threadMarcelMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier Have you read Adam Grant’s Think Again yet? I think you’d like it a lot.
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@marcel I haven’t but it’s already bookmarked. Thanks for the recommendation
Show threadAgoraMay 8, 2023
@marcel @bastianallgeier this☝️
Show threadScott MatterMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier

Is this the Mister Gotcha effect?

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Mister Gotcha | The Nib

Calling out all hypocrisy all the way.

The Nib
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@scottmatter Definitely sounds related.
Show threadKarsten EgerMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier This sounds like this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratfall_effect

It happens all the time, everywhere and it's super annoying. Haven't ever thought about if this phenomenon has a name until now though.

Pratfall effect - Wikipedia

Show threadKashif ShahMay 8, 2023

@C3nC3 @bastianallgeier

"Tolerance in this context is no longer either a psychological trait or a virtue: it is a modality of the system itself. It is like the total compatibility and elasticity of the elements of fashion: long skirts and mini-skirts 'tolerate' each other very well (indeed they signify nothing other than the relationship which holds between them).”

Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures

Show threadJason CartyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier I think about this cartoon a lot.
Show threadpeNdantryMay 8, 2023

@Doctor_J_ @bastianallgeier Interesting. What is it you think, when you think about that cartoon?

Me, I see a couple of folks both making excuses for not acting to change society, but instead just chit-chatting on the fringes of the issue (and I already detest the little know-it-all brat).

Show threadKashif ShahMay 8, 2023

@Doctor_J_ @bastianallgeier

"Experience proves that it is rather the so-called ‘Intelligentzia’ that is most apt to yield to these disastrous collective suggestions, since the intellectual has no direct contact with life in the raw, but encounters it in its easiest synthetic form—upon the printed page."

-Albert Einstein, Why War?

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@KashifShah/110333402742910438

Kashif Shah (@[email protected])

"Is it possible to control man’s mental evolution so as to make him proof against the psychoses of hate and destructiveness? Here I am thinking by no means only of the so-called uncultured masses. Experience proves that it is rather the so-called ‘Intelligentzia’ that is most apt to yield to these disastrous collective suggestions, since the intellectual has no direct contact with life in the raw, but encounters it in its easiest synthetic form—upon the printed page." -Albert Einstein, Why War?

Mastodon @ SDF
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier I'm not convinced that anyone takes a five minute flight in a private yet. Even if you've got staff to do all the planning and paperwork, and have the thing setting at the end of the runway with the engines running when you arrive in your limo, with a direct routing, and landing clearance already given for a straight in approach, it's still going to be quicker to just drive to your destination.

Helicopter, possibly, but I have trouble believing in it for a jet.

Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023

@TimWardCam Can't tell if he's always in it, but at least his jet does very short flights regularly.

https://mastodon.social/@elonjet/110017997270819528
https://mastodon.social/@elonjet/109594389151566367
https://mastodon.social/@elonjet/109594295316477061
https://mastodon.social/@elonjet/109594220615188156
https://mastodon.social/@elonjet/109594143415536763

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier Ah, as a pilot I'm used to regarding a "flight" as being the legal (and sometimes charging) definition, brakes off to brakes on. Five minutes in the air is not a five minute "flight", it's more like a fifteen minute "flight" by the time you've done all the faffing around on the ground. A typical one circuit check ride is five minutes in the air, fifteen minutes on the invoice.
Show threadPeter ButlerMay 8, 2023
@TimWardCam @bastianallgeier 15-minute flights seem a bit too short as well to be sustainable
Show threadAgoraMay 8, 2023
@TimWardCam @bastianallgeier I took it as an exaggeration. It does take longer than 5 mins to take off.
Show threadPJ "Vote Green" CoffeyMay 8, 2023

@TimWardCam

Did you mean to do this as a practical example of this effect?

Someone may have used hyperbole but you felt drawn to gotcha them?

@bastianallgeier

Show threadDave #FBPEMay 10, 2023
@TimWardCam @bastianallgeier not a five-minute flight but our PM lives to fly short distances even when the train would be about the same time when you've added on distances to and from stations vs distances to and from landing strips. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/09/sunaks-flying-visit-to-unveil-pharmacy-plan-underlines-out-of-touch-image?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Tory MPs voice unease over Sunak’s flying pharmacy visit

PM’s costly helicopter trip to Southampton to announce prescription reforms underlines fears of some he is out of touch

The Guardian
Show threadAndy 🏳️‍🌈🇪🇺🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿May 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier we're facing a bit of a debate on hypocrisy for an event I'm helping organise. It's an eco and community event. It's really important we have food and hot drinks on site. But how do we allow food suppliers to cook and heat water without generators or gas bottles? Solar isn't going to cut it for most uses and we can't hook into the mains where we are. It's currently looking like we're going to allow generators and gas, but with an explainer about the debate and problem we faced.
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@vespasianvs That's a great example. You feel like you are making yourself attackable for such a ridiculously small detail that won't say anything about the integrity or outcome of the event. The same scrutiny would never be expected for pretty much any other event.
Show threadAndy 🏳️‍🌈🇪🇺🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿May 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier we just know we're going to get called out on it (much like I've been called out before for being a bit of an eco campaigner who also has a car - shocking I know). Even worse... I'm taking a flight next month to take my mum on holiday (flight cost ÂŁ50/each, equivalent train ÂŁ500/each)
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@vespasianvs to say it with Luisa Neubauer‘s words: A completely sustainable life is not possible in an unsustainable system.
Show threadFeòragMay 8, 2023

@vespasianvs @bastianallgeier Not going to criticise, but look at Interrail passes. I live in Edinburgh, and am currently drinking beer in 1st on an ICE train at OsnabrĂźck. Got a 1st class 7 days out of a month pass and had saved money by the time I got to Brussels.

That this is one of the cheaper ways by train (2nd class cheaper but not by as much as you might think) is depressing. Fun though.

Show threadAndy 🏳️‍🌈🇪🇺🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿May 8, 2023
@feorag @bastianallgeier I did look at that too and it was an option and certainly one I will use in future. However for this ocassion it didn't work out well as we needed to use sleeper trains to make the itinerary work for us. Last year I caught the train from Salisbury to Carcassonne and that was awesome.
Show threadFeòragMay 8, 2023
@vespasianvs @bastianallgeier Glad you know about it. I think they’re awesome!
Show threadpeNdantryMay 8, 2023
@vespasianvs @bastianallgeier I feel your pain. It's like the dilemma faced by someone who has to go to work to pay the bills and has no option but to drive there because public transport is inadequate. Sometimes we have no choice because the infrastructure hasn't yet changed (as it must if we are to survive).
Show threadDibleyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier i suppose it needs to start somewhere. Even when it’s only a small part of a flawed effort.
Show threadShaneMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier hypocrisy has been elevated to the greatest of sins because of moral relativism. My generation was taught, for better or worse, that all, or at least most, opinions and belief systems are valid and should be respected. So you can’t criticize someone for beliefs genuinely held. But if their actions seem to contradict those beliefs, then you can give them hell.
Show threadRoy WigginsMay 9, 2023

@ShaneB @bastianallgeier This attitude is nowhere held to more tightly than in traditional big news media, which made a certain recently former US president basically immune from negative coverage. You can't report on a politician's words as if they're reprehensible; you have to play along as if they're not. The only time the traditional media get to get their knives out for someone is when they catch them in hypocrisy.

If you don't have any ideals, you can't be caught out, so.

Show threadPaul QuirkMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier probably what motivated Walt Whitman when he said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
Show threadPhilippa CowderoyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier Now notice how much gets put out to make "hypocrites" of people who're aware of their limitations!
Show threadBastian AllgeierMay 8, 2023
@flippac yes, it's very easy hackable.
Show threadllewellyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier
the fossil fuel industry has understood for a long time that perceived impurities like a climate activist with a plastic cup, or a climate scientist with a plane ticket are powerful tools for alienating people from climate activism, and that's why, decades ago, they began creating deeply misleading ideas like the "personal carbon footprint". The result has been horribly corrosive to climate activism.
Show threadGordon J HoltslanderMay 8, 2023
@llewelly @bastianallgeier Willful ignorance and its supporting partners fear and prejudice are the simplest and easy political tools, (fear and ignorance is with everyone) but they readily become mired down by logic and consitency. But Anger (willfull ignorance's steady companion) can shout loudly and briefly silence logic and consistency. But does a fool consider itself taken for a fool when Anger cries wolf! too many times?
Show threadZolan QuobbleMay 9, 2023
@llewelly @bastianallgeier for some hypocrisy is good manners & equals civilised behaviour. A genuine drive to value integrity would undermine privilege, so mockery of the hypocrisy of advocates of sustainable, integral values keeps hypocrisy undefeated & the farce rolls on.
Show threadZolan QuobbleMay 9, 2023
@llewelly @bastianallgeier for some reason I can't help thinking of the absolute flummery of armed forces, clergy & the dressing up clothes of a coronation on the one hand and the arrest of someone for wearing a t-shirt on the other. I bet that t-shirt wearer had eaten palm oil in a snack bar - such hypocrisy.
Show threadCassandrichMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier Somewhere in the past decade or so I committed to consciously undoing this. We don't need to, and absolutely should not be, burdening those working for change with gratuitously playing on hard-mode for no measurable difference of outcomes.
Show threadElisheva Meira ✡︎ 🌈May 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier This post on how an aspect of how extremism functions includes discussion of the problems which arise when actual, ideal and "ought" selves aren't in alignment ("ought" being from other people's expectations).

It's perhaps another aspect of what you're talking about, and one that's very common on social media today, both in terms of mistakes made and mistakes alleged to have been made but are really misinterpretations.

And yes, it's everywhere.

https://jmberger.substack.com/p/fear-and-self-loathing

Fear and self-loathing

How extremists exploit psychological dynamics to provoke emotional responses

WORLD GONE WRONG
Show threadDoug WebbMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier there's a group in Germany doing a lot of direct actions right now, #letztegeneration (last generation)

A month or two ago, some people who were due for court, but had went to Bali on holiday - yes, flights.

The social media team did a good spin on it though, saying that meat-eaters and frequent flyers were more than welcome to join in their actions!

Strategy, and strategically ignoring insults, are important.

Show threadNicole ParsonsMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier

The people funding malign influence campaigns are fully aware of how humans are fooled into counterproductive black-or-white thinking.

Letting the perfect get in the way of progress.

It's how the GOP let 1.17 million Americans die of covid.

Conning people into thinking a lunch with Gavin Newsom or a haircut for Nancy Pelosi meant the pandemic wasn't real.

GOP voters died in droves over that con.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/12/covid-deaths-anti-vaccine-republican-voters/672575/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-republican-counties-have-higher-death-rates-than-those-in-democratic-counties/
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/03/03/the-changing-political-geography-of-covid-19-over-the-last-two-years/

How Many Republicans Died Because GOP Leaders Turned Against Vaccines?

Party leaders are unquestionably complicit in the premature deaths of their own supporters.

The Atlantic
Show threadFadeMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier I think of this, perhaps unfairly, as the Steven Universe principle: people on Tumblr raging wildly against a very queer cartoon not being precisely exactly the kind of queer they wanted, while ignoring all media that's outright homophobic and cruel about it.
Show threadEljorgeabidesMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier this is a very good point.

Thank you for bringing it to light

Show threadmaswanMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier
A related effect, blaming the people resisting a bad change for not resisting good enough more than blaming the people pushing for the horrible stuff. Commonly seen in politics.
@rysiek
Show threadErlend Sogge HeggenMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier this is so true for #opensource creators, who are held to an impossibly high standard.

Working for a Big Tech company? Gotta make a living somehow.

Trying to commercialize some extension of your open source project in the pursuit of self-sustainability? Sellout!

Show threadS.T. VejeMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier People want to feel good about themselves and their choices. So when they see someone who's "doing more", instead of following their example, they look for perceived flaws so they can say "oh, that person isn't any better than me after all."

Except it's not about being better than anyone. Or being perfect. It's about trying, and doing your best.

Elon gets a pass because you don't have to do anything to feel like a better person than Elon.

Show threadBryan  Calckey May 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier 🎯🎯🎯
Show threadCjayflaMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier this is excellent. If I ever entered public life I’d make it a point to make these kinds of “mistakes” on a small insignificant scale, an idiot filter that would be very useful.
Show threadHugh FergusonMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier one of the reason why it's easier to be Conservative than Liberal. Conservatives do policy which shafts people, but that's what we expect of them.
Show threadRorkimaruMay 8, 2023

@bastianallgeier had a job interview recently and there was a plastic and a glass cup in front of me. It being a part covid world I chose the single use and then afterwards I wondered if it was a test.

I start there in two weeks so I'm gonna ask them then

Show threadn0bodyMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier This reminds me of the epigram incorrectly attributed to Josef Stalin: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
Show threadCubeOfCheeseMay 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier I would very much like a name for this effect
Show threadDaily TwerX ✅May 8, 2023
@bastianallgeier see this sort of thing way too much.

People looking for anything to justify their own lack of engagement.
The individual who is caught using a plastic cup may have invested time, energy and money reducing their carbon footprint, but that counts for nothing in the eyes of a person who wants to justify their own lack of action.