On labels, bias and intellectual growth

Labels are hard. The more strongly we feel attached to them, the more prone we are to confirmation bias, etc., and that’s intellectually stultifying. If you’re open to the world, and new evidence, your views should be changing all the time. Intellectual growth means you’re going to grow out of partisan or ideological categories. On the other hand, social organization and coalition formation builds off identity, and if you won’t commit to and promote an identity, it can be hard to get people to listen to you, or have influence on behalf of good ideas.

— Will Wilkinson, comment in his AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread at Reddit.