Scott Alexander defends the concept of automaticity in psychology, arguing that core cognitive biases and priming effects are real, while acknowledging some claims have been overstated. Longer summary

Scott Alexander responds to a critique of automaticity in psychology, arguing that while some claims about cognitive biases and priming have been overstated, the core concepts are real and well-replicated. He provides examples of cognitive biases, priming effects, and nudges that have strong evidence behind them. Scott compares cognitive biases to optical illusions - real phenomena that affect our perception, but not in ways that make us completely helpless. He argues that automaticity is actually a very old idea about human nature, found in various philosophical and religious traditions. While we shouldn't see ourselves as completely controlled by unconscious forces, Scott suggests that accepting some level of automaticity in our cognition is both realistic and not necessarily problematic. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reports on weak correlations and inconclusive results from the latest SSC survey on optical illusions and visual perception. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the results of the latest SSC survey, focusing on optical illusions and visual riddles. He admits to being unable to expand on or strengthen his previous findings from 'Why Are Transgender People Immune To Optical Illusions' and 'Can We Link Perception And Cognition?'. While he weakly replicated some previous results, the correlations were too low to be exciting. He found minimal internal structure in the results, with different versions of the same illusion showing low correlation. The post also briefly mentions some pre-registered investigations that yielded uninteresting or negative results, including studies on political conflict theory, autism and categorization responses, and ADHD and ambition. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander preregisters hypotheses for the 2018 SSC Survey, planning to explore relationships between perception, cognition, personality, and demographics. Longer summary

Scott Alexander preregisters his hypotheses for the 2018 SSC Survey. He plans to investigate various relationships between perception, cognition, personality traits, and demographic factors. Key areas of focus include replicating previous findings on perception and cognition, exploring concepts like 'first sight and second thoughts' and 'ambiguity tolerance', investigating birth order effects, and examining correlations with autism, political views, and sexual harassment. He also plans to follow up on a previous AI risk persuasion experiment. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explores potential links between perception of optical illusions and cognitive styles, proposing further research to investigate these connections. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the potential link between perception and cognition based on survey results about optical illusions. He notes that 'weirder' groups (e.g., schizophrenics, transhumanists, polyamorous people) tend to see more ambiguity in illusions like the Hollow Mask and Spinning Dancer. Scott proposes a research program to explore whether perception of optical illusions could predict cognitive biases or high-level beliefs. He plans to include more illusions in future surveys to better understand the underlying mental processes. While acknowledging the ambitiousness of this idea, he cites some supporting evidence, such as the involvement of NMDA receptors in both political opinions and illusion perception. Scott also considers potential confounding factors and how to address them in future research. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander hypothesizes a link between transgender identity, optical illusions, and NMDA receptor function, based on survey data and existing research on schizophrenia and autism. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores a potential link between transgender identity, optical illusions, and NMDA receptor function in the brain. He presents survey data suggesting that transgender individuals, like those with schizophrenia and autism, are less susceptible to certain optical illusions. He hypothesizes that this might be related to NMDA receptor hypofunction, which is also associated with dissociation, a common experience among transgender people. The post explores how estrogen, which enhances NMDA function, alleviates dissociation in trans women. Scott connects these findings to broader research on NMDA receptors in schizophrenia and autism, noting the higher prevalence of these conditions in transgender populations. The post concludes with several caveats and suggestions for future research to validate these speculative connections. Shorter summary

The post examines Midwestern geography, debunking the author's initial impression of a grid pattern in town arrangements and humorously exploring potential 'ley lines' between cities. Longer summary

This post explores the geography of the Midwest, particularly Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota, using satellite images. The author initially thought there was a clear grid pattern in the arrangement of towns, but upon closer inspection, found this to be an illusion. The post discusses the Public Land Survey System, which does create a grid pattern, but at a smaller scale than what's visible on these maps. The author humorously looks for 'ley lines' connecting cities and finds a few potential alignments, though these are likely coincidental. The post concludes with an anecdote about Zilwaukee, Michigan, supposedly named to trick settlers heading to Milwaukee into settling there instead. Shorter summary