
Unknown Unknowns: The Problem of Hypocognition - draenei
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/unknown-unknowns-the-problem-of-hypocognition/
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Endama
Complete aside here, but this concept of Amae and hypocognition hit really
close to home. My girlfriend is white and I am an E. Asian guy, we have
completely different concepts of love and I suspect our unwillingness to
compromise to the other's perspective is a kind of unwillingness to concede
our cultural preference to the other.

For example, if I don't express enough words of affirmation or desire over a
given period of time, she begins to worry that I no longer care for her and
have lost interest. In fact, the opposite is true! In my culture, maintaining
control of your own emotional expressions is considered polite and civil,
emotional stability is the marker of a mature individual, especially when that
stability is expressed in times where it is inconvenient for the individual to
do so.

However, from her perspective, that approach is repressive, "befuddling and
Machiavellian to a Western mind". Perhaps cultural perspectives, combined with
hypocognition, inevitably cause different cultures to be inclined towards
conflict toward one another?

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WalterSear
IMHO as a bi-racial person who has spent over a decade on three separate
continents, I have come to a very different perspective on culturally-driven
explanations for mores and behaviours like Amae, and appeals to duty
/conformism/emotional repression. I don't beleive they are anything more than
rationalizations for ingrained society-wide behavioral dysfunction.

IMHO, that is.

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darkerside
What exactly do you mean by societal dysfunction? Or is it like pornography:
you know it when you see it.

~~~
buth_lika
Maybe something like this?

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minority-
report/2014...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minority-
report/201406/asian-shame-and-honor)

> in shame-based cultures, public humiliation, scorn, or censure are relied
> upon more heavily to keep individuals in obedience whereas the western
> notion of guilt and corrective behaviors comes from an individual’s
> development of an internal conscience.

~~~
WalterSear
Sure.

Or Midwestern culture's mix of religosity, conformist individualism and
confirmation bias, and the resultant suicide and opioid addiction epidemic.

~~~
buth_lika
I'd like to see the studies about "conformist individualism and confirmation
bias". Surely that wasn'n just a kneejerk "I know you are, but what am I"
reaction.

~~~
WalterSear
I'm neither from the midwest, or a shame-based culture, though, I have
immediate in-law family from both, and relatives I visit, obviously.

Check the NIH for studies, though the bulk of the literature is behind the
academic paywall.

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athenot
The article starts out about hypocognition but ends up being about
availability of vocabulary to express certain concepts.

I would argue that many people can still fluidly intuit a concept even if they
don't have a convenient shortcut to express it. Of course, the unavailability
of a linguistic shortcut can also point to a poor and unformalized
understanding of that concept.

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azhu
Not having the vocabulary to express certain concepts is one half of the Darth
Maul lightsaber of hypocognition. The other end is not having the vocabulary
to detect certain concepts. You are right, many people can still intuit
something they do not have a concept for. But, not being hypocognitive of that
thing to begin with would not only help them then express that concept but
also initially understand it with more depth.

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foundart
This seems like useful background:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity)

~~~
dorchadas
Seriously. The whole article seemed pretty much predicated on the strong form
of it being true. When, really, it's just plain false (and the weak form is
susceptible, in my opinion, as well).

