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Jack comments on [Link] You Should Downvote Contrarian Anecdotes - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Vladimir_Golovin 18 June 2012 07:57AM

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Comment author: gwern 18 June 2012 04:48:37PM *  3 points [-]

There is the obvious alternative of de-biasing the readers (e.g., through comments, PMs, posts) and oneself.

Providing de-biasing information like thorough statistics does not eliminate the effects of anecdotes or stories, though. Consider the meta-analysis Winterbottom et al 2008.

(Ref borrowed from my usual fiction-is-bad essay.)

Comment author: VincentYu 18 June 2012 05:23:08PM 2 points [-]

Thanks for the links. I do not have in mind any general de-biasing technique that I would expect to work online (or offline, for that matter).

On de-biasing: a reminder that anyone who does have in mind a de-biasing technique can submit it to CFAR to get $500 (if adopted as an exercise; otherwise $50 if it's good enough to be tested):
http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/CFAR_Exercise_Prize

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