Crony belief is a concept originally introduced in Kevin Simler's post, "Crony Beliefs". It's useful for reconciling the difference between inside and outside views. Crony belief is one that has been "hired" by a person's mind for social and political kickbacks. This is in contrast to merit beliefs, which help the person to navigate the world and are "hired" for accurately modeling the world. Crony beliefs are rewarded through social impressions, and merit beliefs through effective actions.

It's important to note that not all beliefs fall neatly into one of the categories. A belief can be both, when it's socially useful, but also epistemically accurate. Or it can be neither.