army1987 comments on 2012 Survey Results - Less Wrong

80 Post author: Yvain 07 December 2012 09:04PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 09 December 2012 01:02:16PM *  2 points [-]

There was a strong effect of LW exposure: 57% of those in the top third chose Drug A vs. only 44% of those in the bottom third.

I think this might just be due to the fact that the meme that “time is money” has been repeatedly expounded on LW, rather than long-time LWers are less prone to the decoy effect. All the rot13ed discussions about that question immediately identified Drug C as a decoy and focused on whether a low-income person should be willing to pay $12.50 to be spared a three-hour headache, with a sizeable minority arguing that they shouldn't. I'd look at the income and country of people who chose each drug -- I guess the main effect is what each responded took “low income” to mean.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 December 2012 07:46:26AM 0 points [-]

"time is money" seems to me a pretty common and natural way to think if you live in a society whose workers tend to be paid hourly, whether you're new to LW or not.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 December 2012 11:52:15AM 2 points [-]

Even people nominally paid hourly often cannot freely choose how many and which hours to work. (With unemployment rates as high as there are now in much of the western world, employers have more bargaining power than workers, etc.) It's not like if I got a headache this evening, I could say “rather than having a three-hour headache, I'll take this $12.50 drug which will stop it, work two hours and earn $20, and then have fun for one hour”.

Comment author: Corvideus 10 December 2012 08:11:17AM 0 points [-]

I guess the main effect is what each responded took “low income” to mean.

Exactly. In South Africa that $350 could represent 16% or more of a possible yearly salary in some of our poorer areas.