Strilanc comments on Stupid Questions March 2015 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Gondolinian 03 March 2015 11:37PM

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Comment author: Strilanc 04 March 2015 04:17:31PM *  3 points [-]

The 2014 LW survey results mentioned something about being consistent with a finger-length/feminism connection. Maybe that counts?

Some diseases impact both reasoning and appearance. Gender impacts both appearance and behavior. You clearly get some information from appearance, but it's going to be noisy and less useful than what you'd get by just asking a few questions.

Comment author: gedymin 04 March 2015 04:40:52PM 0 points [-]

..assuming the replies are truthful.

Comment author: Vulture 04 March 2015 11:19:34PM 0 points [-]

Why would anyone bother to send in false data about their finger-length ratios?

Comment author: gedymin 05 March 2015 09:08:35AM *  3 points [-]

I meant that as a comment to this:

the information less useful than what you'd get by just asking a few questions.

It's easy to lie when answering to questions about your personality on e.g. a dating site. It's harder, more expensive, and sometimes impossible to lie via signaling, such as via appearance. So, even though information obtained by asking questions is likely to be much richer than information obtained from appearances, it is also less likely to be truthful.

Comment author: Vulture 06 March 2015 02:22:37AM 0 points [-]

Oh, I see, haha. Yes, that makes more sense, and your point is well-taken.