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How much should you criticize other people?

by  Tyler Cowen May 15, 2022 at 2:58 am in

  * Philosophy

I mean in private conversation, not in public discourse, and this is
not to their faces but rather behind their back.  And with at least a
modest amount of meanness, I am not talking about criticizing their
ideas.  Here are some reasons not to criticize other people:

1. "Complain less" is one of the very best pieces of wisdom.  That is
positively correlated with criticizing other people less, though it
is not identical either.

2. If you criticize X to Y, Y wonders whether you criticize him to
others as well.  This problem can increase to the extent your
criticism is biting and on the mark.

3. Criticizing others is a form of "devalue and dismiss," and that
tends to make the criticizing people stupider.  If I consider the
columnists who pour a lot of energy into criticizing others, even if
they are sometimes correct, it isn't so pretty a picture where they
end up.

4. If X criticizes Y, it may get back to Y and Y will resent X and
perhaps retaliate.

5. Under some moral theories, X is harming Y if X criticizes Y, Y
doesn't find out, and Y faces no practical penalties from that
criticism (for an analogy, maybe a wife is harming her husband if she
has a secret affair and he never finds out about it).

Here are some reasons to criticize others:

4. Others may deserve the criticism, and surely there is some
intrinsic value in speaking the truth and perhaps some instrumental
value as well.

5. Criticizing others is a way of building trust.  In a three-way
friendship with X, Y, and Z, if X establishes that he and Y can
together criticize Z, that may boost trust between Y and X, and also
increase X's relative power in the group.  Criticizing "Charles
Manson" doesn't do this -- you've got to take some chances with your
targets.

6. Criticizing others may induce people to fear you in a useful way. 
They may think if they displease you, you will criticize them as
well.

7. Perhaps something or somebody is going to be criticized no matter
what.  If you take the lead with the criticism, that is a signal of
your leadership potential.

What else?  Is there anything useful written on this topic?

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