Goodharts law in action
Comment on Posting the shopping cart theory because people had questions in a separate thread
figaro@lemdro.id 2 months agoHere’s the thing - the people who don’t return their shopping carts even know that this is a test. If they did, their behavior would change. If you know about the test, it fundamentally voids the test. And that is what makes it valid. If there is no pressure, what do they do?
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Or you could just not judge strangers who are in a rush.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
You can typically tell when someone is in the kind of rush that’d excuse being a jerk to others
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Theres lots of reasons someone might feel or be incapable of following all of the social norms. Good and bad reasons. Since we can’t know which is which at a glance its best to withhold judgment.
Although some cases are like 99% sure and you can totally judge their pants off all you want.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I feel like this was chosen specifically because it’s one of those cases where it’s easy to tell.
For instance, there was a Walmart next to a bus stop I used to take. People had to take their groceries to the bus, but Walmart didn’t put a shopping cart corral within like 200 meters of it. I don’t really blame people too harshly for leaving their carts there, if they’re taking a big load of groceries on the bus.
Fwiw it’s not that it’s a social norm that is important, it’s it’s natural as a social good, and it’s nature as something (typically) trivial to do.
figaro@lemdro.id 2 months ago
As God, I temporarily relieve the souls who are currently in a rush from the consequences of failing the shopping cart test. They will be tested again, however, using seemingly innocuous daily items to prove if they belong in the good place.
Redfox8@mander.xyz 2 months ago
But the ‘test’ is peer pressure, no? Which exists permanently in real life so there will always be a portion of people only returning the cart because of that.