
Economic and Academic Consequences of Fraternity Membership - ph0rque
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2763720
======
Steko
Kevin Drum notes it's a weak result but if true, wonders if the authors draw
the right conclusions:

 _suppose it’s true. Here’s what the authors say:_

 _Our results indicate that college administrators face an important trade-off
when they consider policies designed to limit fraternity life on campus: while
such policies may significantly raise academic performance, these gains may
come at a significant cost in terms of expected future income for their
graduates._

 _I’d argue exactly the opposite: ... Allow me to reframe the authors’
conclusion:_

 _Our results provide empirical evidence that fraternities are just another
way for social elites to keep themselves at the top regardless of actual
performance. Those rejected by fraternities, even though they have higher
GPAs, earn 36 percent less than those accepted by fraternities. This is
further evidence, if any were needed, that college administrators face few
trade-offs when they consider policies designed to limit fraternity life on
campus._

[http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/09/new-report-
fra...](http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/09/new-report-fraternities-
help-mediocrities-succeed/)

~~~
gshulegaard
Just an anecdote, but joining a fraternity drastically improved my social
skills...and I personally believe these skills are fundamental when it comes
to being successful in the work force. Not because being in a fraternity made
me a member of a elite alumni group that excludes others, but because it
allows me to be a more effective team member.

I have not doubt that I would be far less successful if I was as socially
self-isolating as I was in high school. Not just successful as far as career
trajectory, but just a less effective contributor. Most jobs require team
efforts...which require social skills to navigate politely and effectively.

It is from this perspective I find the original conclusion more reserved and
purely based on observed correlations, while the second infers much (regarding
causation).

~~~
cowpig
I'm pretty sure most people develop social skills in university regardless of
whether they join a fraternity. Having a group of adult friends, freedom,
roommates, etc, all prepare you for the real world.

Fraternities also prepare you for the ugly parts of the real world, though.
The real world is full of elite clubs without meritocratic entrance criteria,
and learning how to join one and function within one is certainly an
advantage.

I would argue that removing this advantage from as many people as possible
would make the system of society as a whole run better, though.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _I 'm pretty sure most people develop social skills in university regardless
> of whether they join a fraternity_

Being in a frat isn’t the only way to develop these skills. But lots of people
coast through college without any non-academic social extracurricular
exposure.

~~~
lallysingh
And lots of people don't. For the student, it sounds like a useful venue to
learn social skills.

------
danjoc
All the frat guys I ever knew had well off parents. They were going to make
more than everyone else due to that alone. Of course, being surrounded by
privilege, parties, and sorority girls eager to score a rich boy hurt their
grades. That doesn't really matter though. They graduated. Some even took an
extra year or two to do that. It didn't matter. They did fine. Being a prince
has advantages.

~~~
bkohlmann
Joining a fraternity was one of the most meaningful and impactful experiences
of my life.

I come from humble means - my parents couldnt and didnt pay for any of the
(expensive) school I ended up attending. I ended up joining one of only two
"wet" fraternities on campus (meaning we were allowed to have booze in our
house), and the one considered the most social. I was (am) an introvert and
didn't drink in high school or college until I was 21. I loved nearly every
moment. Not once did wealth, influence or ability to pay impact our
recruitment decisions (and I was deeply involved in the process all three
years). In fact, we did more due diligence on "legacies" than any other
candidate.

My fraternity brothers were some of the most dynamic and interesting people
I've had the honor of knowing. It was the first chance I ever had to delve
into real politics...as a member of the executive board, we dealt with some
challenging interpersonal issues that I wouldnt have been able to wrestle with
until much later in my life.

While my brothers were very different than me, I grew more and learned more
while living in my house than I did in the rest of college.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. But there are also virtuous, powerful reasons
why fraternities endure.

~~~
addicted
By joining a fraternity despite being from humble means I'm almost certain
you're someone who would have sought social connections even without. And
you'd likely end up into an academic or an athletic or an interest based group
where you'd build similar connections. The difference would be that the
arbiters of who joined your club would base their decisions on your
skills/interests/passions as opposed to your drinking skills during rush.

Would that be a better situation? I don't know but I personally doubt you
would not have had the same meaningful growth if you lived in a hypothetical
world where the social Greek system did not exist.

~~~
bkohlmann
Perhaps, although in my particular case, I joined because I applied for a
scholarship the house sponsored - and it was the only house I rushed. I spent
most of my time holed up in my room the first quarter except for rush events I
was explicitly invited to. And that chosen preference for isolation continued
in the house as well. But simply being there forced me / gave me the
opportunity to walk downstairs and be immersed in a sea of fascinating people.
It really was the thing that taught me how to build relationships across
differences.

------
forgotpw2017
Not surprised. I was in a fraternity, and no we didn't haze at all. Between
all the events (of which less than a third are parties) and dedication it
takes to keep the thing from barreling into the ground you learn a lot of real
life skills.

First, there's selection bias. We would only take guys that were really
sociable, somewhat hard working, competitive, and with decent grades. Most
fraternities were the same. "Frat bros" being meathead rich retards is a myth.
We would pick the smartest, most promising, and sociable guys in the school.
Money wasn't a factor. Neither was skin color, my house was probably 40%
minorities. But we had a fraternity GPA a solid .6 above school mens average
and a dropout rate of less than half. Fraternities ARE elitist and I was proud
of that. So are all the tech companies.... We only took the best. Yeah we
drank more than most students and had crazy parties but we were also smart,
hardworking, and had a lot of friends.

Second, the power structure closely resembles the business world, complete
with budgets of over a half million even in a modest sized house. Bigger
houses have budgets of millions a year. These budgets were handled by the
"exec board" which was just democratically elected student members.

A fraternity is basically a non-profit company run by students. Harder to do
than it sounds, especially with all the hate towards Greek coming from the
school itself. At many schools the Greek system is actively shunned by the
administration.

Then there's the connections. Being in a fraternity/sorority means you
automatically know over 50 people pretty well, sometimes hundreds. I was vice
president for several years and I knew hundreds. Maybe 20 really well. I knew
people on the school board. I met the president of the University enough times
that he knew me by name. The president of the student senate was a great
friend that lived across the hall.

I got my first job from an old friend from the house and another was kind
enough to help me move across the country to a tech hotspot. We're all still
friends to this day and we joke about how wedding are largely a fraternity
reunion. Everything in my life today exists largely because I joined a
fraternity 8 years ago.

~~~
cowpig
Not surprised. I was in a fraternity, and no we didn't haze at all. Between
all the events (of which less than a third are parties) and dedication it
takes to keep the thing from barreling into the ground you learn some basic
lifeskills and some harmful worldviews.

First, there's confirmation bias. Our social group's identity was build around
feeling superior, so we chose to value the things we were good at, and forgot
about the ways in which we did harm to everyone around us. Also, probably a
lot of bad things happened to us that got washed away in a boozy haze.

Most fraternities were the same. "Frat bros" being meathead rich retards is
not how we see ourselves. We see ourselves as the smartest, most promising,
and sociable guys in the school, which has no impact on our being seen as
"meathead rich" whatsoever. Money wasn't as much of a factor as I realized, as
most of the bias was outside my control. My house was probably 40% minorities,
which is a statistic I'd like to use to show how little I understand about
racial inequality. But we had a fraternity GPA a solid .6 above school mens
average and a dropout rate of less than half.

It's really easy to get comfortable with being a fundamentally bad person.
Just invert the emotional response: fraternities ARE elitist and I was proud
of that instead of ashamed. See how easy that was? Also you can point to how
other people do it too. Tech companies are elitist, for example. We were
shining examples of virtue defined precisely in the way that most benefited
us.

Second, power structures in the business world closely resembles that of our
frat world. Despite this being a serious problem in society, it benefits me
directly so I choose to see it as en example of why frats are good instead of
why the business world has problems. Want to see how ridiculous the inequality
is in the university world? I'll brag about some stats. Bigger houses have
budgets of millions a year. These budgets were handled by the "exec board"
which was just democratically elected student members.

I like to think of a fraternity as a non-profit company run by students of our
personal selection. It doesn't technically turn a profit, but we do! That's
what nonprofits are all about, right? Harder to do than it sounds, especially
with all the hate towards Greek coming from the school itself. At many schools
the Greek system is actively shunned by the administration for some reason I
can't possibly fathom.

Then there's the connections. Being in a fraternity/sorority means you
automatically know over 50 people pretty well, sometimes hundreds. Let me
check my facebook. Actually it was thousands. I was very important. I knew
important people. I really like important words like "president" and
"executive".

Eventually I had to join the real world and it turned out that being part of
an exclusive club full of people who were taught for years to value tribalism
and self-importance pays off: I got my first job from an old friend from the
house and another was kind enough to help me move across the country to a tech
hotspot. We're all still friends to this day and we joke about how wedding are
largely a fraternity reunion. Everything in my life today exists largely
because I joined a fraternity 8 years ago.

FTFY

~~~
forgotpw2017
I stopped reading half way through because your shitpost twists everything
said into a life of privilege and deceit. My dad was a mechanic. His dad
worked in a steel mill. His dad worked in a steel mill. His dad escaped the
horrors of WW1 in a country we'll never know.

Go ahead and twist everything I say until it either refutes me or supports
whatever agenda you want.

You can talk general shit about fraternities but the minority part really bugs
me. Our house was more Asian and African American than it was white. Are you
saying my house bought minorities for points? Ballsy. We took them because
they were good. My best friend was 100% black and going for his PhD.

Instead of lamely forming your argument by copy editing a few words of mine
how about coming up with something of your own?

~~~
cowpig
Wasn't trying to twist anything. Just letting you see how your post looks to
someone not in your in-group.

It's crazy to me that your worldview is so deeply embedded with tribalism that
you think your dad being a mechanic or your friend being black have anything
to do with who you are.

The point about minorities is just that: by arguing that you're not racist
because minorities are in your tribe, you're showing that you completely miss
the point. For you, the in-group is your frat, your world. And being outside
your world means lacking a variety of privileges in life.

But race is an in-group too, and maybe that's not one of the tribes you
recognize, but for many people it is, and it's the tribalism that's the
problem, not the fact that skin color happens to be a particularly easy and
dangerous arbitrary criterion for admission into the tribe.

~~~
subjectsigma
Your post is incredibly disingenuous.

>It's crazy to me that your worldview is so deeply embedded with tribalism

And yours isn't? You just assumed this person is a "meathead rich retard" and
a "fundamentally bad person" who "did harm to everyone around" because he's in
a fraternity? Talk about unfair stereotyping.

>Wasn't trying to twist anything. Just letting you see how your post looks to
someone not in your in-group.

You are trying to twist things. If you're going to be aggressively "anti-
privelege" the least you could do is drop the smug moralizing and admit that
you're pushing an agenda here based off of your own personal worldview.

~~~
hhhxyxyy
May I ask if you were in a fraternity or sorority?

------
baron816
Dear Silicon Valley,

Please start something (company or otherwise) that will make it easy for
adults (young and old) to become part of a large, real world social network.
One which will help them form good career connections, as well as platonic and
romantic relationships. Fraternities create their own unique culture
(traditions, handshakes, songs, idioms, etc) to tie people together, so keep
that in mind. Please leave hazing out of it too.

Kindly,

Baron

~~~
dragonwriter
> Please start something (company or otherwise) that will make it easy for
> adults (young and old) to become part of a large, real world social network.

Churches are real-world social networks that are generally easy to join (the
degree to which they provide large or strong networls vary considerably, of
course.)

There are lots of other examples.

I'm not sure what the opportunity for Silicon Valley is here.

~~~
davidw
"Silicon Valley disrupts religion" sounds like a gold mine for parodies.

~~~
SeeDave
Hey David,

It's actually a thing that I'm a part of!

Check out Vive Church [1], formerly known as C3 Silicon Valley [2]

[1] [https://vivechurch.org/](https://vivechurch.org/)

[2] [https://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/c3-silicon-valley-
churc...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/c3-silicon-valley-
church?utm_term=.se8vaW12a#.rgM70ljE0)

-David

------
notadoc
Not surprising. Fraternities engage in many nonacademic activities which could
lead to a lower GPA, but they also come with a very large social network and
series of connections which help members find jobs and further career options.

~~~
watwut
But, it is supposed to be meritocracy. \snark

------
BoorishBears
Unless you're already about to fail, few, if any, employers will care about
your GPA, and joining a large network of college graduates who share
camaraderie can't hurt when it comes to finding well paying positions and
moving up in organizations

~~~
vostok
> few, if any, employers will care about your GPA

"Elite" careers care a lot about GPA.

~~~
fny
I can guarantee no one really cares about your GPA, especially after your
first job. If it's your only proof of competency/intelligence that's been
validated by a third-party, they'll care, but if you have other outside
evidence and interview well, no one will ever even think to ask, even in elite
settings.

I, for one, have never put my GPA on my resume.

~~~
santaclaus
> I can guarantee no one really cares about your GPA

When a buddy of mine was interviewing at hedge funds, a few of them didn't
just want his undergrad GPA, but also his high school _SAT_ scores. He
actually got shit from one of the interviewers because his French SAT scores
were shady... the dude had a few years of finance experience and a PhD in
theoretical physics. YMMV.

~~~
WikipediasBad
These are "generalized careers" so they have to grasp at arbitrary cues that
vouch for intelligence and competence. Careers that require specialized tasks
don't look at generalized grade averages or test scores of non-relevant
backgrounds like "French SAT" for a "hedge fund" job.

------
ghostlygpa
From personal experience, joining a fraternity definitely affected my grades
negatively. I ended up graduating with around a 3.1 after a few rough
semesters far below that. Having said that, the connections I made have been
absolutely invaluable and I'd attribute all of the success I've had in my
career to either my work experience as a student or the relationships I made
in the frat.

~~~
kelnos
Hell, I wasn't even in a frat, but my success since college had little to do
with GPA (< 3.0), and mainly to do with work experience, open source work, and
connections that lead to introductions and interviews.

I think GPA alone is just a very poor predictor of success. There are a ton of
other, much more important factors.

~~~
ghostlygpa
Oh absolutely. Having older members come back after graduation to tell
everyone how true this is didn't help, we all knew practically from the get go
that we needed to focus on things like internships and leadership experience
rather than class.

EDIT: "didn't help" might actually be "helped immensely", ha

------
gozur88
So... spending time networking and developing your most important job skill,
that of interpersonal communication, pays dividends later in life at the
expense of a small hit in your GPA?

Color me not at all surprised.

------
dragonwriter
It's kind of junk, because it doesn't include and control for variables like
pre-collegiate socioeconomic status which is well-known to contribute to both
likelihood of joining a fraternity and income potential.

As a result, while it shows a _correlation_ , it provides very little basis to
reject that the correlation is due to a common cause rather than frat
membership causing the income result.

------
uptownfunk
Wish I had joined a frat in Uni..

What no one told me in Uni is that:

\+ You're either tech or not tech, and not tech is not sexy in the valley

\+ You need experience, no one cares about all the extra coursework you do,
experience is king

\+ Don't wear a suit to an interview in the valley, ever.

\+ Your connections are invaluable, form lasting relationships, it's one of
those weird things where not studying pays off, a lower GPA is actually good
in this instance, and the bonding time with the bros is more valuable down the
line.

~~~
peteretep
I'm a recruiter who doesn't work with any companies in the Valley, and I'm
curious about this:

    
    
        > Don't wear a suit to an interview
        > in the valley, ever.
    

Really? Almost everywhere else in the world, not wearing a suit to an
interview is a weak negative signal, as it shows you're unlikely to be able to
put up with even small amounts of the inherent corporate bullshit that occurs
in companies. Even if you'll never wear a suit once employed.

I'm not disagreeing, I just want to know more.

~~~
danielam
I think this is generally the case for tech companies in the United States and
for startups around the world. Personally, I can't name a single tech company
where interviewees are expected to wear suits to interviews. If there are any
such bona fide tech companies (versus companies with tech teams), I imagine
they're older corporations.

~~~
userbinator
IBM.

------
meri_dian
A fraternity is like a business. Learning to work within that kind of
structure can help prepare you for the real world in a way that .25 of of a
GPA cannot. But it's likely more correlation than causation. I'm not convinced
by the methodology the authors claim distill causal effects. The Minerva and
Theme variables are assumed to present plausible alternatives to Greek life
but that may not be the case.

A few bad fraternities/fraternity brothers give the institution as a whole a
bad reputation, but aside from those bad ones I don't understand the
fraternity hate. What's wrong with wanting to be part of socially beneficial
organization that will help you make friends and party over the course of
(some of) the most carefree years of your life?

------
agjacobson
1\. Frats select for lower overall academic ability. Few physics, biochem, ee
majors. This bleeds over into their easier major. 2\. Frats select for larger
physical stature and attractiveness. This deselects for academic performance
and strongly selects for business success. 3\. Most importantly, there is
little artistic, creative, or purely intellectual emphasis here. If a young
person is dedicated to "going for the money" at an early age, the results are
not surprising.

These advantages, while enduring, are likely to reduce with time, in my
opinion.

~~~
bobthechef
> Frats select for larger physical stature and attractiveness. This deselects
> for academic performance and strongly selects for business success

Physical stature and attractiveness are negatively correlated with academic
performance? Sounds like you're repeating a stereotype. Can you cite evidence
of that? (I have come across studies, e.g., Kanazawa 2011, that show
significant positive correlation between intelligence and attractiveness.
Also, frats are not composed of purely attractive people. That's just
Hollywood movie nonsense. I've met plenty of unattractive and rather dull frat
members.)

------
blahyawnblah
I would have failed out of college if it wasn't for people in my fraternity
pushing me to get my grade straightened out. Joining one was one of the best
decisions I ever made. I was shy and really wasn't very good at socializing
before I joined.

For people saying all the fraternity members being from well to do families, I
disagree. It was about the same price as staying in the dorms. We had a
professional cook, on site laundry, live in advisor (house mom), and a large
yard. I think I paid $600/month for all food, board and utilities.

------
adpoe
One positive thing about being in a fraternity -- it provides experience in
dealing with and resolving conflict in a large organization.

For better or worse, navigating the internal politics of a clique such as a
college fraternity is often similar to what many people later experience in
the wilds of the corporate world.

You also get a lot of practice meeting & building rapport with a wide variety
of peers (both male and female), if your fraternity socializes frequently.

These 'soft' social skills are just as much of a factor in determining salary
as technical ones. And for all their warts and downsides, fraternities do
provide you with good practice. Of course, you need to be wealthy enough to
pay the dues, etc...

However -- more time socializing means less time for studying. So GPA goes
down, but interpersonal skills go up. These new interpersonal skills pay off
dividends later, though.

Just an extremely non-rigorous hypothesis.

------
beager
Rather than attack the study and criticize the limited data (one northeastern
US university) and the conclusions it draws, I'll say I'm intrigued by the
results and would hope for a larger study that brings in a larger data set and
controls for school type and geography.

------
snorkel
Indeed, the power of networking. I was not in a frat but I can attest that my
GPA didn't help me get a job, my college roommates did! ...and they probably
lowered my GPA too!

~~~
notadoc
Networking is the true value of going to "good" schools too.

You're going to read the same books and have the same general coursework at an
ivy league as you will a state school. The difference is the people, including
who is teaching you, who is learning along with you, and who they know.

------
chrissnell
The best “fraternity” I ever joined was ROTC. My GPA went up half a point, I
got in shape, learned a lot about leadership, and made some life-long friends.

------
sbge
Or Alpha males have greater tendency to join frats and to progress into
leadership and push for greater pay...

Why claim causal link here?

~~~
maxerickson
Why claim "Alpha" exist?

Before getting too up in arms it's probably worthwhile to see what the actual
paper claims.

~~~
sbge
err, what?

~~~
bagels
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_(ethology)#Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_\(ethology\)#Controversy)

"Researcher L. David Mech, one of the primary creators of the Alpha male
hypothesis for wolves, later found additional evidence that the concept of an
Alpha male may have been an erroneous interpretation of incomplete data and
formally disavowed this terminology in 1999. He explained that it was heavily
based on the behavior of captive packs consisting of unrelated individuals, an
error reflecting the once prevailing view that wild pack formation occurred in
winter among independent gray wolves. Later research on wild gray wolves
revealed that the pack is usually a family consisting of a breeding pair and
its offspring of the previous 1–3 years.[16]

Researcher M.W. Foster investigated primates and found that the leaders were
more likely to be those who did more for those around them instead of being
determined by strength. [17]

In humans, the concept of an alpha male was challenged as being largely
nonexist as per an article by Dean Burnett, who found that human leadership
roles vary wildly based on the current social context, and traits attributed
to an "Alpha" might be exhibited in one scenario, and traits attributed to a
"Beta" might be exhibited in a different scenario by the same individual.
[18]"

~~~
Clubber
My kid likes the show "Adam Ruins Everything," which is a myth debunking show.
He went over the same things you just stated. The concept of "Alpha male" was
all hype that just stuck.

------
dpflan
New metric: SPA = "Social Point Average" or NPA = "Network(ing) Point
Average"?

------
kraig
It's less about what you did in school and more about your network outside of
school.

------
doctorsher
From the paper: "Since our results are drawn from data on a single college,
they may have limited external validity." In particular, they specified that
this college is a small liberal arts school. I too was in a fraternity at a
small liberal arts school. I think people should be wary when trying to paint
the national fraternity system with the same brush stroke, as the greek
climate at small liberal schools can be quite different that the climate at
large universities. I'm not sure how this would affect their results, but the
environment is very different in my mind.

They also say: "57% of alumni in our sample report belonging to a fraternity,
which is somewhat higher than the 46% of all male alumni that were fraternity
members. Greek alumni may be over-represented in the survey due to greater
attachment to the college." While they mention this detail in passing, I find
it quite interesting. Not sure what the implications are; it would probably
require further study.

I'm also not quite sure I buy that people self reporting the amount they drink
is controlled by adding their age and age squared as factors. I think it's
natural to remember the "good times", which often coincide with drinking, but
not remember the weeks you spent slogging through coursework. This, sometimes
combined with a perverse incentive structure that says drinking is cool and
you should do it more, may artificially inflate the self reported number of
nights in a week spent drinking.

I also see a lot of people in this comment thread saying the increased salary
is intuitive due to the connections made in a fraternity. I am suspicious of
this. This is anecdata, but I was one of two computer science majors in my
fraternity (of ~75 members). I have received no obvious professional gain from
being in my fraternity. A number of my other friends who went to med school,
dental school, and law school had to get in on their own merits -- fraternity
connections do not apply to those domains (alumni ones, perhaps, but not
fraternity). Others who got jobs seemed to rely more on connections between
our college and various companies, not through our fraternity.

It's unfortunate that this paper does not control for college major -- they do
when considering the grade regressions, but not the future salary. I would
imagine the distribution of majors for people who are in a fraternity are
different than the distribution of majors for those who are not. Perhaps those
majors chosen by people in a fraternity, like law or business, tend to be more
lucrative. Additionally, I can imagine people in some of the more socially
conscious majors might be repulsed at the idea of joining a fraternity, and
also do not tend to be the highest paying. I am being a bit broad and hand-
wavey, but this comment is not a research paper -- just trying to capture my
intuition.

Lastly, relying on my personal experience, I think a fraternity might improve
qualities necessary for working at a company. Again, anecdata warning, but I
became more sociable and confident after joining my fraternity; I also became
less edgy, awkward, and bashful. I think these qualities are some of the
intangibles that can help people get ahead at a company. Perhaps most
importantly, you are forced to live and work with some people who you dislike,
which is essential for being in the workforce.

All in all, I think it's an interesting paper, and I appreciate their work. It
still leaves something to be desired though.

------
gigatexal
yep likely a social networking effect.

------
ZeroGravitas
I find it interesting how strongly HN as a collective believes corporate
America isn't a meritocracy in some threads, while in others it assumes hiring
decisions are all about merit.

The difference mostly seems to revolve around whether sexism is brought up.

Here we are discussing men joining men-only organisations for networking
purposes and the general consensus is basically "duh, that's how I got my job.
Everyone knows that's how it works!"

~~~
grzm
> _I find it interesting how strongly HN as a collective believes corporate
> America isn 't a meritocracy in some threads, while in others it assumes
> hiring decisions are all about merit._

It's because HN _isn 't_ a collective in the sense that we all share the same
opinions (as much as one might reference the hive mind). There's a wide range
of opinions, values, and experiences and you'll notice some piping up in one
area and others in, uh, others. Add the wrinkle that we're all (well, likely
mostly) human with all of the idiosyncrasies of human psychology that implies.
We're perfectly capable of hypocri^H^H^H^H^H logical inconsistency. There's a
lot of evidence that our rationality is there primarily to rationalize (in the
truest sense) our intuitions and explain them to others.

