Every time I search something like “Why is X bad?” on reddit or other forums, the majority of comments is always people arguing the exact opposite. This has been my experience countless times over the years. Recently I started searching the opposite of what I want to know, like “Why is X good?”, and it works flawlessly.

  • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca
    0·
    5 days ago

    I think the psychological effect is called reactance. When faced with opposition to their position, people will defend it more aggressively than they would just agree with someone affirming the same position.

    There was a joke that said if you wanted programming help, you’d post a question on Stack Overflow, then use another account and answer your question with an aggressively wrong answer. People would attack the wrong answer and actually give a quality answer more regularly than they would otherwise just answer a question with no answers.

    It also reminds me of that web comic with a woman telling a man to come to bed, and he just stares at the computer and says “I can’t. Someone is wrong on the internet.”