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satt comments on Is suicide high-status? - Less Wrong
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Are you saying that some readers might be afraid that someone proposing that suicide can be a status raising move may encourage someone to go through with it? This seems a bit far fetched.
I find it plausible. All else equal, most people prefer doing things that raise their status, and someone suggesting that suicide's high-status is evidence that suicide raises one's status. (I do agree with you that an LW post's quantitative effect is almost certainly small, though.)
I think pointing out that something is high status typically makes it less high-status though... reduces the mystique somehow.
How small is small? If the chance would be p=0.001 that the post kills someone, is that small?
Fair question. I'd expect an LW post & discussion of similar size to this one to cause 10^-3 to 10^-4 suicides, but I might now be anchoring on your reply. (Also, that expected value only counts one side of the ledger; I'm ignoring the possibility of the discussion discouraging people from committing suicide.)
To me, it feels big, in the sense of disproportionate, but small in absolute terms.