scientism comments on New Post version 2 (please read this ONLY if your last name beings with l–z) - Less Wrong

8 Post author: lukeprog 27 July 2011 09:57PM

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Comment author: scientism 28 July 2011 08:30:59PM 16 points [-]

I downvoted because of the assumption that there's something obviously wrong with jealousy and that monogamy is suboptimal. It's possible that both jealousy and monogamy are necessary components of reaching areas of utility that can't be accessed in the context of casual relationships. You could be gaining short-term pay off (not feeling jealous, being able to satisfy short-term urges) at the cost of higher utility long-term pay off (a traditional romantic relationship). Nothing is the story suggest that you'd obviously know if you were missing out on the latter either.

Comment author: lionhearted 29 July 2011 07:26:01AM 9 points [-]

I downvoted because...

Whatever you [Luke] were split testing for (a quick look suggests "Lesson" vs. "Rationality skill") is probably undone by the first reply comments on this post compared to the other one.

An interesting observation that was noted at Hacker News a while back is that the top rated comment on almost any opinion piece is disagreement - because people who passionately disagree are more likely to look for an argument to back in the comments.

If you skim discussion sites where voting moves comments up and a culture of dissent being respected reigns - you'll see it's usually true.

But the difference between the A version and the B version is that, as of the time of this writing, B starts with "I downvoted because..." whereas A's first comment is also disagreement, but of a more encouraging sort. I think this will probably dominate the results far more than the phrasing and exact structure of lesson/skills learned.

Comment author: twanvl 10 August 2011 04:05:22PM 1 point [-]

The obvious solution is then to hide comments until a user has voted on an article. Perhaps with a third option to abstain instead of up- or downvoting.

You could also test this effect with a similar AB test. Just give the two groups of readers the exact same article, but with a different first comment added by a collaborator or sock puppet.