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There is no end of examples. The first that comes to mind is the “Dear Colleague” letter around Title IX that drove colleges to replace evidence-based adjudication with deference to subjective claims and gutted due process on college campuses for over a decade.

Another is the push to eliminate standardized testing from admissions.

Or the “de-incarceration” efforts that reduce or remove jail time for extremely serious crimes.



WAIT. Do you know why de-incarceration is a program? Do you have any idea?

It’s because the evidence says overwhelmingly that incarceration is a substandard way to induce behavior change, and that removing people from incarceration and providing them with supportive skills training has a much, much higher rate of reducing recidivism and decreasing violence.


The evidence does not overwhelmingly say that. Empathy-biased thinking says that.


What do any of those things have to do with empathy?


All three replaced impartial rules with empathy-driven bias.




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