> Purity Spirals

This is an interesting idea (phenomenon?):

> A purity spiral is a theory which argues for the existence of a form of groupthink in which it becomes more beneficial to hold certain views than to not hold them, and more extreme views are rewarded while expressing doubt, nuance, or moderation is punished (a process sometimes called "moral outbidding").[1] It is argued that this feedback loop leads to members competing to demonstrate the zealotry or purity of their views.[2][3]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purity_spiral

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doubleunplussed 7 days ago | parent [-]

Certainly something they're aware of - the same concept was discussed as early as in 2007 on Less Wrong under the name "evaporative cooling of group beliefs"

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZQG9cwKbct2LtmL3p/evaporativ...

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thedudeabides5 4 days ago | parent [-]

haha, classic LWer reply

"someone wrote a weirdly labeled thing about this once so they must not be subject to the phenomena'

does the existence of a piece of writing on a topic really immunize the community from the disease @doubleunplussed?

	▲	doubleunplussed 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't say it did, I said they're aware of it. Also thought it was worth pointing out that the LW "weird label" predates the label in the comment I replied to.