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From: Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2024 15:10:24 -0400
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On Sun, 28 Jul 2024 14:57:29 +0100, Hibou
<vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:

>Le 28/07/2024 à 10:57, occam a écrit :
>> On 27/07/2024 18:52, Rich Ulrich wrote:
>>> Peter Moylan wrote:
>>>> On 27/07/24 20:32, Steve Hayes wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> [PTD] would pronounce that something someone else had said was
>>>>> wrong, when it wasn't and continue to insist on it even when several
>>>>> people had produced evbidence that it was true.
>>>>
>>>> The Australian coat of arms shows a kangaroo and an emu holding a
>>>> shield. These two animals have something in common: they cannot walk
>>>> backwards. Their anatomy does not allow it.
>>>>
>>>> That was PTD's problem. When caught in an error, he was completely
>>>> incapable of backing out. His only option was to dig a deeper hole.
>>>>
>>>> He's the only person I've encountered with such a severe form of this
>>>> disability. Some others came close, but they got out of the impasse by
>>>> responding with a non sequitur.
>>>
>>> Anecdote: The great mathmetician/statistician Karl Pearson was
>>> also the first editor of Biometrika (for 35 years).  He described
>>> what we know as the Pearson chisquared test -- but for a few
>>> years, he insisted that it had 3 degrees of freedom, not 1.  And
>>> he refused to publish the folks who argued (what he finally
>>> conceded) for 1.
>>>
>>> This is frequent a characteristic of Aspergers Syndrome (which
>>> is a diagnosis no longer in the book; too bad).
>> 
>> Whoa!  I'm no expert on Aspergers, but that is a big leap. There are
>> half a dozen cognitive biases that could equally explain Pearson's
>> behaviour.  Have a sift:
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
>> 
>> Just for starters:
>> 
>> - Escalation of commitment:
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment>
>> 
>> - Illusory truth effect:
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect>
>> 
>> -  Big Ego. As the editor of Biometrika for 35 years, he would certainly
>> not like to be corrected.
>
>Yes, I don't think it's peculiar to Asperger's or autism. People often 
>adopt positions without exploring them thoroughly, commit themselves, 
>and then feel obliged to defend that commitment, even when it turns out 
>they're wrong.
>
>It's not easy to admit one is wrong, but it has its advantages. It 
>brings discussion to a halt, instead of prolonging it embarrassingly, 
>and one gains Brownie points for valuing the truth.

Consider this combination:  Asserting something that is not true
is LYING.  LYING is very bad, like, a bad sin. So one is careful
in what one asserts.  And one does not want to admit to the 
sin of being wrong. This creates a certain internal conflict, 
because there is also the notion that a 'sin' should be something
that was intentional; and the original mis-statement is not
something that one regrets. 

Bill (stats-resident Aspie) would justify his (very rare) backing
down by asserting that there are two different 'cases' and he
was thinking of the other (and more important, somehow) one. 

-- 
Rich Ulrich