Friday, December 28, 2018
Interesting question, useless research
Some academics in Singapore have posed an important question, but their research is the usual worthless computer-based "game-theory" shit.
A recent study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) found that when it comes to making financial decisions under risk, older adults will regard the financial outcomes of others as their own and make choices that they would have selected for themselves. "Citizens in approximately one third of the countries around the world rely heavily on decisions made by older adults who may be government, business or community leaders. It is important to not only understand how these elderly people make decisions for themselves, but also how they make decisions on behalf of others, as their decisions can lead to significant gains or losses," said team leader Assistant Professor Yu Rongjun, who is from the Department of Psychology at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.It's an excellent question, and it couldn't be asked in European-based cultures. It could be asked in East Asian cultures, and among the original American tribes who are genetically East Asian. Those groups innately respect elders. Euro cultures = Assisted Suicide. Separating the question into three stages........ Part of the answer is basic biology. Youth loves risk. True of all living things from plants to mammals. The seed, the egg, the larva, the fledgling, are all designed to be quasi-disposable. Carried to new places by wind or waves or wings, most of them die. After life is established in the new place or new situation, the adult defends its own survival fiercely, resisting invaders and changes that will ruin its habits established by painful experience. Do ordinary old folks have more empathy for financial risk? Maybe. Scammers who exploit the charitable impulses of old ladies are successful. Finally, do old leaders have more empathy than young leaders? I doubt it. Weak negative correlation. Current empathetic leaders are widely varied in age, but the older ones didn't become more empathetic with age. Putin is 66 and he's been serving all Russians since he was 40. Mahathir is 93 and again he's always been serving all Malaysians. Salvini and Bolsonaro are empathetic and young. The anti-empathetic leaders, the raw Randians, are mostly old. Soros, Trump, Hillary, Juncker, Merkel, Macron. Only Macron is young.
Labels: Constants and Variables, coot-proofing
¶ 7:14 AM
