A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “experimental design”. Follow an idea across the archive.
A replication of a 2023 neuroscience study on brain entrainment and learning found that the original effect likely doesn't exist, revealing how the study obscured key issues through statistical averaging and highlighting how AI tools are democratizing scientific scrutiny.
Scott Alexander's experiment tested how different essays affect people's concerns about AI risk, finding a modest but persistent increase in concern after reading.
Scott Alexander analyzes two conflicting studies on gender bias in STEM hiring, exploring reasons for their contradictory results and the challenges in reaching a definitive conclusion.
A person repeatedly wakes up in a Matrix-like pod, being told different versions of reality about the concept of 'family' in a series of nested scenarios, ultimately revealed to be an alien experiment.
Scott attempts to test a productivity hack using calligraphy study, but discovers calligraphy itself is captivating, leaving the experiment inconclusive.
Scott reviews psychological research showing that people don't have introspective access to their own mental processes and instead guess at their reasons for behavior in the same way they would guess at others' motivations.