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

Scott Alexander creates an amateur utility measurement test to explore the feasibility of comparing utilities in utilitarianism, inviting readers to participate despite its limitations. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the feasibility of measuring and comparing utilities in utilitarianism. He mentions a searchable database of health outcome utilities at Tufts, but notes its limitations. Frustrated by the lack of utility measurements for non-health states, Scott creates his own amateur utility measurement test. He invites readers to participate in this 15-30 minute survey, acknowledging its confusing nature but encouraging participants to guess his intentions and skip unclear questions. Shorter summary