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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Rather, I think the question suggests the expert evaluate how attached to his bias he is. Rationalization is highly powerful under a guiding ideology. Reasoning is subject to multiple levels of indirection. Is it true? Is it important? How does one deal with uncertainty? What does one value most? Economists are experts at self-justification.

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poke's avatar

His method is interesting. He's essentially asking experts if the disagreement he as a non-expert has with them exists between experts in their field. This is a good heuristic, I think, and will often get to the meat of a disagreement while avoiding a lot of argument. I think by saying "my prior is special" he's merely embracing the inevitability of this bias and using it toward his methodological end, rather than claiming some special reason for his prior to be special.

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