I frequently feel there’s a subtext here that high decouplers are less biased (whether the bias is racial, confirmation, in-group, status-seeking, etc.). Sometimes it’s not even a subtext.
But I don’t know of any research showing that high decouplers are less biased in all the normal human ways. The only trait “high decoupler” describes is tending to decontextualize a statement. And context frequently has implications for social welfare, so it’s not at all clear that high decoupling is, on average, useful to EA goals—much less a substitute to group-level check on bias.
I say all this while considering myself a high decoupler!
I think this is a much needed corrective.
I frequently feel there’s a subtext here that high decouplers are less biased (whether the bias is racial, confirmation, in-group, status-seeking, etc.). Sometimes it’s not even a subtext.
But I don’t know of any research showing that high decouplers are less biased in all the normal human ways. The only trait “high decoupler” describes is tending to decontextualize a statement. And context frequently has implications for social welfare, so it’s not at all clear that high decoupling is, on average, useful to EA goals—much less a substitute to group-level check on bias.
I say all this while considering myself a high decoupler!