Scott Alexander addresses feedback on his post about bisexuality and Long COVID, discussing alternative explanations and defending his methodology. Longer summary

Scott Alexander responds to comments on his previous post about the correlation between bisexuality and Long COVID. He addresses alternative explanations, concerns about sample size and methodology, the nature of psychosomatic illness, and various other points raised by readers. Scott maintains that while the association exists in the data, the cause remains uncertain and could be due to various factors including response patterns, biological differences, or a combination of organic and psychosomatic elements. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander addresses reactions to his claim that media rarely lies, exploring different interpretations of 'lying' and examining specific cases of alleged media deception. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the reactions to his previous posts about media rarely lying, addressing various criticisms and examples provided by commenters. He explores different interpretations of 'lying', examines specific cases of alleged media deception, and reiterates his position that while media often misleads or reasons poorly, it rarely engages in outright fabrication of facts. Scott also reflects on the nature of conspiracy theories and the importance of understanding how people can genuinely believe false things. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander investigates whether non-religious people are more prone to believing conspiracy theories, finding a U-shaped relationship between religiosity and skepticism. Longer summary

Scott Alexander examines the claim that non-religious people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and woo. He analyzes various studies on beliefs in UFOs, Bigfoot, and astrology across different religious groups. The results show a more nuanced picture: both strongly religious people and outright atheists are generally less likely to believe in these theories, while those in the middle (weakly religious or agnostic) are more susceptible. Scott discusses possible explanations for this pattern, including intellectual coherence and closed-mindedness. He concludes that the relationship between religiosity and belief in conspiracy theories is more complex than commonly assumed. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander introduces the 'North Dakota Constant' to explain why about 33% of people tend to believe in conspiracy theories in surveys, regardless of evidence. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the prevalence of belief in conspiracy theories, introducing the concept of a 'North Dakota Constant' of about 33% - the percentage of people who will believe in a conspiracy theory without any supporting evidence. He compares this to the previously established 'Lizardman Constant' of 4%. The post analyzes survey data on beliefs in various conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate and Obama's birthplace, arguing that the seemingly high percentages of belief might be more reflective of this constant rather than actual widespread acceptance of these theories. Scott suggests that factors like the absence of 'don't know' options in surveys, low-information voters, and pre-existing biases might contribute to these results. He concludes that we should be cautious about drawing strong conclusions from such survey data, especially when the percentage of believers is close to 33%. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explains discrepancies in animal moral value surveys, highlighting how methodology affects results, and emphasizes the importance of clear research procedures. Longer summary

Scott Alexander updates his previous post about a survey on animal moral value and cortical neuron count. He explains that discrepancies between his results and a replication attempt by Tibbar were due to differences in survey methodology. David Moss from Rethink Priorities conducted a larger survey, revealing that the way participants are allowed to express 'infinite' value for animals significantly affects the results. Scott acknowledges the fragility of these results, as they balance between people valuing all animal lives equally and those giving extremely high values to certain animals. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of clearly explaining research procedures and ensuring links to procedures are correct. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the results of the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey, providing links to the questions, results, and downloadable public datasets. Longer summary

This post announces the results of the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey, which was completed by 8,171 people. Scott Alexander provides links to view the survey questions and results, and mentions that more detailed analyses will be published over the coming year. He also offers downloadable datasets of the public responses for those who want to investigate the data themselves, noting that these datasets exclude some sensitive information and may not exactly match the full version. Shorter summary

Scott announces an upcoming SSC survey and invites reader suggestions, while warning that most won't be implemented. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces a brief decrease in blogging due to Thanksgiving and informs readers about an upcoming SSC survey. He invites readers to provide suggestions for survey questions, methodology improvements, or any other feedback in the comments. However, he notes that most suggestions will likely not be implemented due to constraints. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander shares the results and data from the 2018 SSC Survey, which received over 8,000 responses, and invites readers to explore the findings. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the results of the 2018 SSC Survey, which received 8,077 responses. He provides links to view the survey questions, results, and a comparison survey conducted on Mechanical Turk. Scott also shares downloadable data files for the 7,298 respondents who agreed to have their responses shared publicly. He mentions plans to post longer analyses later, including those related to pre-registered hypotheses, and invites readers to investigate the data themselves. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2017 SSC survey and requests readers to provide simple, machine-readable answers for easier processing. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2017 SSC survey and encourages readers who have read at least one SSC post to participate. He warns that the survey is quite long. Scott also adds an edit emphasizing the importance of providing simple, machine-readable answers for easier processing, giving examples of good and bad responses to illustrate his point. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander analyzes the results of his utility and QALY survey, discussing interesting findings and the challenges of utility measurement. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the results of a utility and QALY survey he conducted. He notes several interesting findings, including a striking imbalance in respondents' last names, people's attitudes towards death, and differences in how single people and those in relationships view each other's situations. The post then delves into the utility calculations, noting that while the three methods used correlated inconsistently with each other, their averaged results were remarkably consistent. Scott also observes wide ranges in individual responses but similar preference orderings among respondents. He compares his results for blindness to established health research findings, concluding that while utility measurement is challenging, his test seems as valid as others. Shorter summary