Possible confounding variable: people who don't think they can tell the difference might be less likely to do the test. I remember Brienne doing something similar on facebook. I read a couple of entries, spent a while agonizing about whether I thought they were slightly more likely to be genuine or fake, got bored/frustrated and gave up.

Great job, you two! Don't forget to give your elephant and rider some time to "discuss" the findings internally before making the final judgment. I find that my elephant will slowly come around unless there's something important I've overlooked, which is a major risk when doing explicit calculations. For instance, I notice there's no representation of location, which tends to be a very important factor in deciding where to live.

I found these very difficult (with one exception -- one of the entries was mine). Perhaps I'm just bad at spotting the relevant cues, but I think actually vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism are probably easier to fake than (e.g.) liberalism/conservatism or theism/atheism. Being a vegetarian isn't a matter of all-encompassing worldview; you can turn an omnivore into a vegetarian by adjusting one or two opinions (e.g. on what sorts of diet are healthiest) or preferences (e.g., does meat taste delicious or gross) or values (e.g., is a chicken's suffering 0%, 1% or 50% as important as a human's), and it's probably not super-difficult for most thoughtful people to imagine themselves into the opposite position.

I love the idea though it got hard to keep going with the number of items. I don't think I read page 2 as carefully as page 1.

I didn't include my username but will you be posting the full breakdown of which were and were not real?

Really, I think it's pretty obvious which side AndreInfante is on. I can PM you if you're interested.

For Omnivores:

• Do you think the level of meat consumption in America is healthy for individuals? Do you think it's healthy for the planet?

America has an obesity crisis, but I don't see any reason to think that meat specifically is a major part of it. I'm far more worried about the sugar consumption. If, as part of a general reduction in calorific intake, the meat consumption fell, that would be a good thing, but I worry more about people too poor to afford steak.

Regarding planetary "health" - the damage seems to me to be caused by a lack of property rights and tragedy-of-the-commons situations (see e.g. global warming, fish stock depletion, etc) than meat consumption per se. If reliable property rights could be established, we could all happily consume far more meat than we currently do - and without those reliable property rights, everyone going vegan will make little difference.

• How do you feel about factory farming? Would you pay twice as much money for meat raised in a less efficient (but "more natural") way?

I would (and do) pay a little more for humanely raised meat, but not twice as much. Regarding factory farming - what alternative am I comparing it to? It's worse than happy animals frolicking in the fields, it's better than those animals not existing. As in my judgement, the realistic alternative is much closer to the latter, I am an enthusiast for factory farming, but not in an absolute sense.

• Are there any animals you would (without significantly changing your mind) never say it was okay to hunt/farm and eat? If so, what distinguishes these animals from the animals which are currently being hunted/farmed?

It's context-dependent. If I'm starving on a lifeboat, in extremis I'd eat anything that came to hand - even human! - but I wouldn't resort to cannibalism just out of idle curiosity. There are no animals I'd never eat.

• If all your friends were vegetarians, and you had to go out of your way to find meat in a similar way to how vegans must go out of their way right now, do you think you'd still be an omnivore?

Yes. Meat is delicious and I would seek it out.

For Vegetarians:

• If there was a way to grow meat in a lab that was indistinguishable from normal meat, and the lab-meat had never been connected to a brain, do you expect you would eat it? Why/why not?

I'd need to know more about the way the meat was grown, and why, but no, I don't expect I would eat it. Partly because the fact that this product is classified as "meat" tells me a great deal about the people it's aimed at, and the sensibilities of the corporation behind it. Partly because this kind of artificial creation is highly suspect. But mostly because it's so unnecessary - when you can live a happy and healthy lifestyle without having any truck with meat, why would you want to go down that route?

• Indigenous hunter gatherers across the world get around 30 percent of their annual calories from meat. Chimpanzees, our closest non-human relatives, eat meat. There are arguments that humans evolved to eat meat and that it's natural to do so. Would you disagree? Elaborate.

Humans didn't evolve "to" do anything. That's the naturalistic fallacy. We just evolved. And sure, we have certain adaptations that make it easier for us to eat meat, but we have other adaptations (the shrivelled appendix, for example) that make it harder for us to do so. Unlike most other omnivores, humans can't safely eat raw meat - presumably because we have adapted to early technology such as fire. That makes it very misleading to talk about what's "natural" for humans, because there is no natural human state apart from our technology. But sure, there is a sense in which it's "natural" for humans to eat meat - the same sense in which it's natural for humans to murder our stepchildren, which chimpanzees and most other mammals do. The word I prefer is "barbaric."

• Do you think it's any of your business what other people eat? Have you ever tried (more than just suggesting it or leading by example) to get someone to become a vegetarian or vegan?

As long as governments are pumping billions into agricultural subsidies, as long as corporations are distorting the democratic process and subverting the First Amendment with ag-gag laws, as long as chemicals and pollutants are flooding our rivers, as long as innocent animals are being tortured so you can eat a roast, then of course it's everyone's business. What you put into your mouth may seem like a private decision, but your ability to eat meat rests on a massive industry and supply chain that affects all of us, whether we like it or not. Externalities matter.

Yes, I have encouraged vegetarianism. I have volunteered for Viva in the past. However, there is a time and a place for such conversations. It's better to build trust first, rather than hectoring strangers.

• What do you think is the primary health risk of eating meat (if any)?

The biggest risk is heart disease and related cardiovascular problems. However, the increased cancer risk is almost as bad.

For Omnivores:

• Do you think the level of meat consumption in America is healthy for individuals? Do you think it's healthy for the planet?

Meat is obviously healthy for individuals. We evolved to eat as much of it as we could get. Many nutrients seem to be very difficult to obtain in sufficient, bio-available form from an all-vegetable diet. I just suspect most observant vegans are substantially malnourished.

On the planet side of things, meat is an environmental disaster. The methane emissions are horrifying, as is the destruction of rainforest. Hopefully, lab-grown meat allows us to switch to an eco-friendly alternative.

• How do you feel about factory farming? Would you pay twice as much money for meat raised in a less efficient (but "more natural") way?

Factory farming is necessary to continue to feed the world. I don't care about "natural", but I'd pay extra for food from animals that had been genetically engineered to be happy and extremely stupid/near-comatose, to reduce total suffering-per-calorie. This would be more effective and less costly than switching to free-range.

• Are there any animals you would (without significantly changing your mind) never say it was okay to hunt/farm and eat? If so, what distinguishes these animals from the animals which are currently being hunted/farmed?

Great apes. cetaceans, and a few birds. The range of animal intelligence is extremely broad. I find it extremely unlikely that chickens have anything recognizable as a human-like perception of the world. I think the odds are better than not that dolphins, chimps, and parrots do.

If you're interested, the animal I'm most on the fence about is pigs.

• If all your friends were vegetarians, and you had to go out of your way to find meat in a similar way to how vegans must go out of their way right now, do you think you'd still be an omnivore?

Yes. I cook most of my own meals, and my meat consumption would continue even in the absence of social eating.

For Vegetarians:

• If there was a way to grow meat in a lab that was indistinguishable from normal meat, and the lab-meat had never been connected to a brain, do you expect you would eat it? Why/why not?

I obviously no moral problem with that. That would be fantastic. However, I probably wouldn't eat the lab meat. I find the texture / mouth-feel of most meat pretty gross, and lab-grown meat would be significantly more expensive than my current diet. Since microbiome acclimation means that resuming eating meat could make me very sick for a while, I'm not sure I see the profit in it.

I am very interested in synthetic milk, cheese, and eggs, however.

• Indigenous hunter gatherers across the world get around 30 percent of their annual calories from meat. Chimpanzees, our closest non-human relatives, eat meat. There are arguments that humans evolved to eat meat and that it's natural to do so. Would you disagree? Elaborate.

Obviously, humans evolved to be omnivorous. However, the paleo people are lunatics if they think we ate as much meat as they do (much less of the hyper-fatty livestock we've bred over the last couple of millenia). Meat was a most likely a rare supplement to the largely-vegetarian diets of ancestral peoples.

Regardless, none of this is the point. Today, it's perfectly possible to eat a vegan diet and be healthy (see: Soylent). You can't avoid the obvious moral horror of eating the flesh of semi-sentient animals like pigs by shouting the word 'natural' and running away.

• Do you think it's any of your business what other people eat? Have you ever tried (more than just suggesting it or leading by example) to get someone to become a vegetarian or vegan?

Only if they bring it up first. I do think we have a moral obligation to try to reduce animal suffering, but harassing my friends isn't actually helping the cause in any way, and might be hurting. I do try to corrupt my meat-eating friends who are having seconds thoughts about it, but, you know, in a friendly way.

• What do you think is the primary health risk of eating meat (if any)?

Parasites probably. Meat in moderation clearly isn't especially bad for you. It's just, you know, wrong.

• have kids
• polyamory
• read fiction
• earn to give
• animal rights

I'd be interested to see your results!

And I wouldn't invent a new name for ITTs for two reasons: First, you're cutting down on the ability of people who are interested to find other examples, but not teaching them the commonly used name (and limiting how many ITT-interested people find you!). Second, I think the ITT name makes sense, Turing's original example (which he called the Imitation Game) was basically an ITT for gender; it makes sense to keep the allusion.

Survey completed! Making a note here: Huge success!

The Cleveland meetup was canceled due to people being busy and sick.