As the title says, how often do you admit you’re wrong? Is it different when it’s a factual dispute versus something more subjective?
I make an effort to concede early if I’m in error. I think because my mother almost never admits fault. She’ll fall back to “that’s not what I meant” or similar deflections first, and that’s really annoying.
The last big factual error I made was about the distance of walking, and that’s where I learned about Taxicab Geometry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry ).
I think some people believe admitting fault is a sign of weakness, but I find it’s more of a power move. It takes strength to do it, and people can tell when you’re sweating and desperate. Usually it leads to resolving the conflict faster and cheaper, too.
(I expect some people will feel the urge to reply they’re never wrong. I’ll file that under never admits fault.)
We’ll find out if I am ever wrong. 😤
often. usually, when it’s something I misjudged. there’s no shame in it - I had x information, I thought it would be a good idea to do y. I forgot to consider z. can’t win 'em all. or yep I screwed I up I did these calculations / tasks wrong because I was rushing.
it’s harder when it’s an “oh shit yeah I was out of line” thing, but I do it whenever I can because I genuinely want to know if I acted appropriately or not
I will always own up to being wrong if I agree that I was wrong. I will be an absolute pain in your ass if I think I’m being blamed for something that’s unfair/untrue.
I tell people I hate being wrong, so the sooner I am corrected or can correct myself the better.
And the answer is… whenever I’m wrong. I am fairly diligent about thinking through what I say and do, but everybody makes mistakes or lacks knowledge, so I am quick to admit being wrong when I am.
Also, counterintuitively, quickly and casually admitting to being wrong often serves to make people forget you were wrong in the first place. My wife and I have had conversations where she admits being wrong (after entirely too much argument), and comments about how I’m never wrong. And I tell her I’m wrong all the time, I just admit it quickly instead of making a big deal about it, so it’s not very memorable. (As we’ve gotten older, those conversations have become more rare, but she still had me 3D print a medal and trophy wall mount, where she gets a “You Were Right” medal or a trophy each time she’s right… like when she convinced me to take my vomiting dog to the vet at night on a weekend and saved his life, and ended up with a dachshund trophy for her wall)
Daily.
Whenever’s there’s a disagreement I’ll at least entertain that I might be wrong.
Being wrong and not knowing it feels exactly like being right. You wouldn’t know.
Nevermind situations that are more about perspectives than actually binary right/wrong.
Often, because I’m often a potato.
Sometimes I nearly fall into the “I don’t care about facts, I’m still right” trap. It’s really enerving to know I might really fall in some day.
When I am wrong and there is evidence?
It makes sense to me, because you learned something.
All the time. People tend not to take it well but that seems their problem.
Also it’s one of the things destroying politics.
Also it’s one of the things destroying politics.
That’s often the previous stop on this train of thought. There are maga people that in their secret heart know they’ve made a mistake, but they struggle to come to terms with that. Though that also carries the fear of losing all their social bonds and being rejected by the group.
Exactly, it’s two sided trained behavior. On one side, no guilt is admitted leading to all downsides of never learning and on the other side there’s a ruthless expectation. It can never work.
It doesn’t help that any time a politician changes their opinion on something, the other side jumps on them for it and accuses them of flip-flopping. In reality, changing a view when presented with a compelling argument or new information is a good thing but they use it as ammunition to attack each other, so of course everyone just sticks to their guns no matter what…
narcissist do that, they wont admit, and will just double down.
When I’m wrong, I always admit it immediately.
It just hasn’t happened yet /s
Once I realize it I will admit it. I kind of like it because it opens up a little spot in my head that’s eager to be filled with better information.
Lately I admit I was wrong in all instances, maybe just at work it’s harder. And idk why, maybe because I’m always mentally exhausted at work.
Every time someone is able to convince me I’m wrong, which is not hard to do, I tend to consider things logically, so empirical evidence that I’m wrong will make me flip immediately. Unfortunately most people use very flawed arguments like trying to appeal to emotions or strawmaning my point (or one of the many fallacious things we all have to deal online). And that will not convince me, in fact it only proves you have absolutely no argument. Which is very unfortunate because I’m wrong quite often, and it only takes one person pointing at actual evidence that I’m wrong to make me realize that, yet the majority of my disagreements online end up at an impasse with the person refusing to find common ground to build the debate up.
What about for more squishy arguments that are entirely about emotions and feelings etc? I remember getting tilted by reading “my culture is not a costume” on a zine, and the emotional appeal is what got me to change my tune
An argument about emotions can be good or bad like any other, a simple “just because it offends me” is a bad argument because I can be offended by censorship and find your attempt to censor offensive. However a “Currently that word has been embraced by people with a certain mindset, thus by using it you’re giving those people more validation on their beliefs as they think you’re one of them” is a very clear argument as to why certain words can be hurtful socially.
My culture is not a costume to me is sorta a weak argument, think about what people dress as for custome parties: Pirates, Ninjas, Vikings, Nuns, Nurses, etc… Most costumes are either of something that doesn’t exist or a culture (and sometimes both). However diminishing someone’s culture to just the clothes is offensive regardless of culture, and exalting a problem in that culture as part of your costume is also offensive. For example, as someone born in Argentina I wouldn’t be offended by someone dressing as a Gaucho, if a friend of mine wanted to dress like that for a costume party I would even lend him my mate. But I can see people getting offended by someone dressed as a soccer player with white powder under their nose (although me personally would just laugh it off, I can see that as being something someone takes offense with).
Unfortunately most people use very flawed arguments like trying to appeal to emotions or strawmaning my point (or one of the many fallacious things we all have to deal online). And that will not convince me, in fact it only proves you have absolutely no argument
One thing I struggle to remember sometimes is someone can make a bad argument, but what they’re arguing for can still be true.
I used to work with a guy that would argue with me, and sometimes at the end he’d be like “I actually agree with your point, but I wanted you to be right for solid reasons”
Of course, it’s also very common for people to be making bad arguments because they’re just feeling stuff, and they’re pulling together whatever words come close to capturing that right now.
Yes, bad arguments can be made about true statements, but people need to understand that you won’t convince anyone with bad arguments, and that discrediting an argument is not the same as discrediting the statement or attacking the person who made it.
For example, just the other day there was a thread about how pitbulls are supposedly more aggressive than other breeds, but the argument they used was “they’re a minority of the population, yet cause the majority of fatalities, therefore they’re aggressive”, which is a TERRIBLE argument that discards all other possible explanations for the observed statistics. It may be true that pitbulls are more aggressive than other dogs, but that argument will never convince me as it’s just plain wrong. And pointing out just how absurd the argument is brought up a bunch of angry people asserting pitbulls are aggressive and attacking me personally for discrediting the logic.
I used to work with a guy that would argue with me, and sometimes at the end he’d be like “I actually agree with your point, but I wanted you to be right for solid reasons”
Yeah, I do that as well, I call it playing devil’s advocate, it’s helpful to be sure the decisions you’re reaching are actually the best ones.
I’ll admit I’m wrong more often than I’ll say I was right. I know I’m stupid and most likely got 0 idea what I’m talking about.
As often as I am actually wrong.
Tap for spoiler
Which of course is NEVER!
Frequently. When I recognize I’m wrong; it’s a couple of times a week at least.
That does not generally coincide with when Lemmy thinks I’m wrong, which also happens a couple of times a week.
