5 Traits You Think You Control (But Totally Don't)

[ZombieHorde]

By Dennis Hong, Michael Hossey April 01, 2014

I'll list all five, and then you can click on the link if you want to read about of them.

#5. Your Political Preferences
#4. Your Belief in a Higher Power
#3. Your Popularity
#2. Your Confidence
#1. Your Talent for Leadership

http://www.cracked.com/article_21053_5-traits-you-think-you-control-but-totally-dont.html/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

[Larry the Cable Dude]

1. Please show research proving these traits are 100% inherited

Thanks.

[ZombieHorde]

2. If only I included a link that discussed the research!!!

Oh wait, I did. You're welcome.

[Larry the Cable Dude]

4. If only you had taken time to read one of those links, which debunks the false claim

We are told that we have no control of the political preferences trait. And then we are shown a link to a study in which the author notes:

""The (brain) differences could be a result of genetics, experiences, or a combination of both," Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101105003.htm

Wait a second. The only way we would have "no control" over our political preferences is if these brain differences were the results of genetics. But besides the difference being possibly genetic, they may also be

-from experiences
-from both genetics and experiences.

So in 2 out of the 3 possibilities, we have either complete control or some control. Awful article. One of the most exaggerated, link-bait type of articles are those citing studies. Most of the time the studies are good, but the blog posts linking to them are awful. This is one case.

In conclusion, no, you did not show any links proving the claim. You showed links that don't.

[ZombieHorde]

5. The brain differences in political preferences was 83% accurate. nt

[Larry the Cable Dude]

8. That doesn't mean these people were born with those differences

What caused the differences in brain biology?

[whatthehey]

11. Not everything that is not genetic is controllable however

It's not so clear cut. Our opinions are also the product of environment, early education, group norms within our childhood communities, and other factors entirely out of our individual control. Loyola had a point about being given the child.

[ZombieHorde]

12. Probably nothing you controlled. nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Well, it's Cracked, so it's pretty much just for amusement.

[cbayer]

3. Great article and a fun read.

I think you have some modicum of control, but when it comes down to it, you probably have a lot less then you think.

[treestar]

6. People won't want to believe

That. They want to tho k they can improve on their confidence or popularity.

[whatthehey]

9. meh. Determinism lite

Technically we don't control anything. Even deciding on which candy bar to buy is determined by prior experiences decided by others. What our parents let us eat, what ads were produced, what our friends liked, and so on.

But all this sophist hand-wringing worries too much about root cause and not enough about proximal cause. My political preferences are proximally determined by my weighing competing proposals against expected outcomes, prior experience and subjective priorities then choosing candidate/party/cause A rather than B. That's entirely in my control.

WHY I calculate those expected outcomes the way I do, or how I evaluate prior experience or assign subjective priority may very well be driven by education and exposure, which may very well be driven by upbringing then by parental situation and genetics and so on ad infintum. That way lies the end of humans as moral agents however, and means there is nothing I can do to vary whether I choose to simply go home after work or massacre a few dozen random people on the way, or even whether I am culpable if I pick the latter. Clearly I can make that choice, or the rather more mundane one about the candy bar. Determinism is certainly valid, but only to the point of developing a personality with given proclivities. The willpower to overcome these when necessary is an act of moral agency. To complicate matters somewhat, how strong of a moral agent a given person is is deterministic itself as in how much they review and evaluate determined proclivities, but absent extremely unusual neurological defects, the ontology of moral agency is not.

[KittyWampus]

10. My experience- we can change but it requires serious analysis and some degree of detachment

And primarily, an intense desire to change.