Pluralistic ignorance

Steven Pinker on Taboos, Political Correctness, and Dissent



Pinker makes a critical point that the overlapping of distribution curves (whether within race, religion, class, gender, etc.) means that you should never mistake the average for the individual. Averages are a useful but crude substitute when you have no other knowledge but specific knowledge is always superior and to be sought after when making critical decisions. Whatever the attribute, and no matter what the group, there is a distribution curve of that attribute and that distribution curve will have greater or lesser standard deviations. Consequently, knowing the average is better than knowing nothing but it is never as good as knowing the particular.

Also;

If dissenters are punished and can anticipate that they are going to being punished then you might have a situation where no one actually believes something, but everyone believes that everyone else believes it, therefore no one is willing to be the little boy who says the emperor is naked. And this pluralistic ignorance, as it is sometimes called, is easily implemented when you have the punishing or censoring of unpopular views.