Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his book review about IRBs, covering various perspectives on research regulation. Longer summary

Scott Alexander summarizes key comments on his book review of 'From Oversight to Overkill' about IRBs (Institutional Review Boards). The post covers various perspectives on IRBs and research regulations, including stories from researchers, comparisons to other industries, discussions on regulation and liability, debates on act vs. omission distinctions, potential applications to AI governance, and other miscellaneous observations. Scott provides additional context and his own thoughts on many of the comments. 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 partially retracts his previous post on animal value and neural number after a commenter's larger survey yielded different results. Longer summary

Scott Alexander partially retracts his previous post about animal value and neural number. A commenter, Tibbar, replicated Scott's survey using Mechanical Turk and obtained different results with a larger sample size. Scott acknowledges that while Mechanical Turk users might not be the ideal sample and some responses seem rushed, it's difficult to claim his original results represent a universal intuitive understanding. He explains that his original sample was more informed about animal rights issues. Scott adds this to his Mistakes page and considers including a similar survey in the future, hoping readers will have forgotten about this retraction. 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 presents and analyzes the results of the 2017 Slate Star Codex reader survey, revealing demographic and psychological insights about the blog's audience. Longer summary

Scott Alexander presents the results of the 2017 Slate Star Codex (SSC) reader survey, which gathered responses from 5,500 people. The post provides detailed breakdowns of demographics, opinions, and various psychological and behavioral traits of SSC readers. Scott also compares some of these results to a smaller sample of Mechanical Turk users. The data reveals interesting insights about the SSC readership, including their political leanings, educational background, and mental health statistics. Scott encourages readers to further analyze the publicly available dataset. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander's bet about readers misinterpreting an article on economists' views on school vouchers is settled through two surveys, confirming his argument. Longer summary

Scott Alexander follows up on his previous post about economists' views on school vouchers as reported in a news article. He had argued that the article misrepresented economists' opinions, and to settle the disagreement, he proposed a bet that most people would misinterpret the article. Two independent surveys were conducted on Mechanical Turk, both showing that a large majority of readers (91% and 78%) misinterpreted the article to claim that economists opposed privatizing education. This empirically settled the disagreement, with Scott winning the bet. He expresses satisfaction at being able to decisively resolve a dispute through experimentation. Shorter summary