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Over the years I’ve realized that since I regularly verbally bludgeon readers people think I’m a severe and overly serious person. Apparently the headshot which I have on Twitter also seems a bit dickish (it was taken in Florence in 2010). To compensate for that I had a friend take this picture of me recently. I’m smiling. So I’m capable of that.
Second, it’s been a while since I posted a reader survey. I’ve been doing them every few years since 2005. I expect that since I moved to Unz Review there has been some change in the readership, but I also have the same people who have been following me across platforms (speaking of this issue, just subscribe to my total content feed).
Here is this the link for this year’s survey, http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1890211/Gene-Reader-Survey. There are 33 questions. Many of them pretty quick (e.g., age, sex, number of children). I’ll be posting an update, and the raw data (csv format) later.
Finally, old reader survey posts.
Update: Nearly 300 responses in. Past experience tells me that the numbers won’t go much more than 500, and that will take a long time. I’ve put the results so far in csv and excel format. I’ll keep the file name the same as I generate updated reports. No big surprises so far, as the respondents pretty much fit the profile of earlier results. Only major surprises to me are the high support levels for maintaining blue collar wages through government intervention, and, the overwhelming acceptance (~75%) of anthropogenic climate change given the somewhat libertarian bias of the readers.
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I think this will be the third, maybe the fourth of these I’ve done from you. I suspect you were much less grey the first time. Feeling old.
The “how long have you been reading?” almost needs a “how certain are you about that?” as I’m really not sure. It’s been years but I just gave a best guess. Was terribly afraid I’d pick a number that was longer than you’ve actually been blogging but checking your archives it was clear that I definitely do not recall starting to read you before you started posting.
That’s some impressive premature greying. Salud.
Just a remark in passing, cityscape is hotter than farmland, farmland is hotter than forest, so yes, I think the earth is a warmer place due to human activity. CO2-driven “climate change,” call me skeptical.
Also – any thoughts on myopia? Inherited, early reading? Correlation with intelligence?
Started to fill it in but was completely baulked by the left-right political orientation questions; so I think I’ll have to leave them, or guess. As a free-market libertarian I don’t accept the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’, which are inherently biased against supporters of the free society by bracketing supporters of free speech and property rights with fascists, corporatists and extreme nationalists.
Also, SAT and GRE percentiles apply only to the USA, I think, so I’ll have to leave them too.
The question of how left or right you are on social issues is a no-brainer. You can only be left or right on economic issues. What is left or right in social issues varies between countries. For example, in many European countries, right wing parties are more active in gay rights and similar issues. When it comes to prohibition issues, the Right is definitely more liberal in many European countries – leftists worry about the cost of drug use in public health care (and worker productivity). Overall the Left can be very illiberal on some social issues.
In economic issues however, right is right and left is left in almost all Western countries. Exceptions exist, for example protectionism among right-wingers, but they are few.
whoever you are, i’m pretty sure you haven’t had 999 sexual partners 🙂
'Murica!
I reported an income of $0.00 which, while true according to my tax returns, for the purpose of your survey you should change that to US$80,000.
I also left SAT & GRE blank as I have never participated in the us education system.
You actually look Muslim in the photo. Not just because of the beard, but the shirt and glasses add to the effect as well. I had some Muslim friends in college and the pious Muslims on campus tended to be bookish and dress conservatively. They usually had glasses, beards, and wore button down dress shirts.
No, I’ve had an undisclosed number of sexual partners that you may assume is at least one, because I also state that I have two children.
@2 Ditto. I have to say that it wasn’t like a first kiss that you’ll remember forever. One day, I just noticed that I’d visited quite a few times.
Re SAT and GRE – I’m reasonably close but this it isn’t the sort of thing that defines me at my age so there is some slight margin of error.
As usual the choice of questions is quite a pastiche.
Now and then I just pop in to say thanks. You lead me to a long list of of wonderful books to read as well as stretching my limited thinking in positive ways with your thought provoking blog threads. I mostly STFU because I can’t contribute to your discussions, but I wish you good luck in your career and expect you will make your mark.
Who cares if you are a severe and serious person? Better that than a Jonah Lehrer type. There are many people, I would assume a non-significant number among your readers, that look for quality work of topical interest, not Leher nepotism and flimflam.
Some of your survey questions were impossible to answer accurately because they addressed complex issues.
An example is your question about increased reliance on nuclear power. If nuclear power plants are built and operated correctly, they are quite safe — even allowing for Murphy’s Law and some human error. However, I know of plants that were poorly constructed, poorly operated, and for which safety records were falsified. If one of your question’s answers had been, “Yes, if it’s done right,” then I could have answered better.
Likewise for gay marriage and feminism. Those are not simple yes/no issues. Gay marriage and feminism both have obvious benefits for individuals and less-obvious costs for society. A lot depends on the society, social expectations, and how such policies are implemented. In the US, they have not been implemented very well. Even issues such as polygamy (or bestiality, though I don’t suggest that they are equivalent) can be argued either way.
In any event, you’ve got my answers. I enjoy your blog.
Can I use my PSAT scores instead as they were much higher? I regressed later in high school when I discovered the joys of drinking and partying.
Not to be a special snowflake, but I found the question on political orientation genuinely difficult to sort out, especially given the approval voting format. In the end, I checked the box if I could say, “I am earnestly tempted by this group’s positions, or at least think they make an important contribution to political discourse.”
Which is just to say: the respondent who claimed to be a neoreactionary center-left anarchist was not trying to invalidate the survey.
I took the survey. I thought the last survey I completed, in 2012, had some better questions, about sex and race differences in personality and intelligence, abortion in cases of genetic disease, etc. I would have been interested in comparing the 2014 results on these (far more controversial) questions to the 2012 ones, and seeing how they were affected by the switch to Unz.
Survey needs less questions about science and public policy, and more questions about aesthetic tastes.
A few nitpicks:
For 15 and 16 do you really want percentiles (0 to 99), or did you mean scores (200-800)? Few people know their percentiles offhand.
For 24, blue collar != poor. Plumbers, electricians and the like are blue collar but comfortably middle class.
For 33, i’m a little surprised that “libertarian” isn’t an option.
999 sex partners are possible if it is just BJ’s
Obviously not long term relationships.
The “how did you first hear about” question reminded me how I used to read pharyngula and now I want to drink myself to death.
“You can only be left or right on economic issues. What is left or right in social issues varies between countries. For example, in many European countries, right wing parties are more active in gay rights and similar issues. ”
Examples? If anything, I think “social issues” are a more strong definition of “left vs. right” than “economic issues” – in general there is a tendency to assign someone to the “left” or “right” according to the issue where you are most “right-wing” (both “left-wing in economic issues, right-wing in social issues” and “left-wing in social issues, right-wing in economic issues” are considered “right-wing”), but usually “left economic/right social” (like christian democrats and neofascists) are considered more right-wing than “left social/right economic” (classic liberalism).
FYI, had a bit of trouble submitting the form on an iPad, and it is possible I may have submitted it a couple of times before finally managing to do it and getting acknowledgement of such on a PC. Hopefully I didn’t actually submit more than once, because if I did, others might have done so too, and skewed the results.
I am a exotic type: Brazilian, 25 with high school education. Never got out of my country, agnostic and right wing extremist in the vein of Hoppe/Rothbard(these ideas are spreading fast here)…
Any other from South America that are into UNZ/sailer/khan ? Maybe we can get together and have a talk and start something…
Talvez a polícia coloque um informante aqui, pra prender a gente por crimes contra o pensamento.
(sorry about my english)
Now this makes me wonder, are there any self-identified neoreactionaries who read GNXP who have been reading it for a long time? GNXP definitely birthed many blogosphere “movements,” including HBD.
999 sexual partners
‘Murica!
I suspect you were much less grey the first time.
having a young face + premature graying runs in my family. but yeah, you are older, like me 😉
Also – any thoughts on myopia? Inherited, early reading? Correlation with intelligence?
it’s heritable, but there’s a norm of reaction. IOW, both genetic disposition and modern lifestyle are having an effect. wouldn’t be surprised if there was a correlation with intelligence, but you know what they say about causation…
which are inherently biased against supporters of the free society by bracketing supporters of free speech and property rights with fascists, corporatists and extreme nationalists.
no one is ever happy with the political questions. *shrug*
You actually look Muslim in the photo. Not just because of the beard, but the shirt and glasses add to the effect as well. I had some Muslim friends in college and the pious Muslims on campus tended to be bookish and dress conservatively. They usually had glasses, beards, and wore button down dress shirts.
looking at the picture i look pretty scary 😉 generally i’m clean shaven, the past month has been an aberration.
Can I use my PSAT scores instead as they were much higher? I regressed later in high school when I discovered the joys of drinking and partying.
obviously. i’m not checking 😉
I would have been interested in comparing the 2014 results on these (far more controversial) questions to the 2012 ones, and seeing how they were affected by the switch to Unz.
no big changes in underlying demographics thought. a touch more conservative & male, but that’s about it. the core readership that actually participates in the surveys is pretty small and steady over the past 10 years, though larger numbers read the blog.
GNXP definitely birthed many blogosphere “movements,” including HBD.
steve sailer coined HBD. i think he was more instrumental, though GNXP had a non-trivial role. also, a lot of the newer HBD and neoreact. types are retards, it’s quite hilarious when they try to ‘school me’ using third-hang concepts garbled from the original GNXP era of the mid-2000s (percolated and laundered through intermediaries).
The masked boxes (the ones that only accepted integers as input) irritated me a bit. e.g. I’m confident in retrospect that the single number I gave for ‘how long have you been reading me?’ was inaccurate, but it’s in the ballpark. Maybe. I think.
Also, I always find your preoccupation with the sexual experience of your readers interesting.
This is like that guy from the last survey whose ideal number of children was like 100 or something. At least that one was believable.
Also, I always find your preoccupation with the sexual experience of your readers interesting.
comments imply enrichment of virgins. survey data confirms this.
Really? Color me surprised. I wonder if the demographics of GNXP readers tracks the general population in this regard.
You actually look Muslim in the photo.
Except that, you know, he’s drinking a glass of wine…
Since when did liberty mean ignoring scientific evidence? Or watching people starve to death in the streets?
I think it’s worth noting that given that a big chunk of your readers (including myself) are not American, our concepts of “left” and “right” when it comes to politics may differ from country to country,
Or watching people starve to death in the streets?
this sort of retarded hyperbole might be fun, but it’s not constructive. when i point out these sorts of things it’s foreshadowing in terms of my penchant for tolerance of future transgressions 🙂
having a young face + premature graying runs in my family. but yeah, you are older, like me ;-)
Also – any thoughts on myopia? Inherited, early reading? Correlation with intelligence?
it's heritable, but there's a norm of reaction. IOW, both genetic disposition and modern lifestyle are having an effect. wouldn't be surprised if there was a correlation with intelligence, but you know what they say about causation...
which are inherently biased against supporters of the free society by bracketing supporters of free speech and property rights with fascists, corporatists and extreme nationalists.
no one is ever happy with the political questions. *shrug*
You actually look Muslim in the photo. Not just because of the beard, but the shirt and glasses add to the effect as well. I had some Muslim friends in college and the pious Muslims on campus tended to be bookish and dress conservatively. They usually had glasses, beards, and wore button down dress shirts.
looking at the picture i look pretty scary ;-) generally i'm clean shaven, the past month has been an aberration.
Can I use my PSAT scores instead as they were much higher? I regressed later in high school when I discovered the joys of drinking and partying.
obviously. i'm not checking ;-)
I would have been interested in comparing the 2014 results on these (far more controversial) questions to the 2012 ones, and seeing how they were affected by the switch to Unz.
no big changes in underlying demographics thought. a touch more conservative & male, but that's about it. the core readership that actually participates in the surveys is pretty small and steady over the past 10 years, though larger numbers read the blog.
GNXP definitely birthed many blogosphere “movements,” including HBD.
steve sailer coined HBD. i think he was more instrumental, though GNXP had a non-trivial role. also, a lot of the newer HBD and neoreact. types are retards, it's quite hilarious when they try to 'school me' using third-hang concepts garbled from the original GNXP era of the mid-2000s (percolated and laundered through intermediaries).Replies: @Kothiru
Interested in learning what concepts they try to sell back to you, especially concepts originating with GNXP?
Just took the survey, hopefully it’s not too late for my answers to contribute to whatever interesting statistical correlations you extract out of your data. (I am an avid reader but not much of a commenter usually).
On the topic of looking Muslim, I think it’s because you shaved the moustache area and not the rest of the beard–it means either Amish or Muslim to most, your complexion does the rest. Why did you decide to adopt that style of beard?
On the topic of looking Muslim, I think it's because you shaved the moustache area and not the rest of the beard--it means either Amish or Muslim to most, your complexion does the rest. Why did you decide to adopt that style of beard?Replies: @Anonymous
In college, one way you could distinguish between the religious or more conservative Pakistani students from the Indian students, that is the non-southern Indian students who are more readily distinguishable physically, was that the Pakistani students tended to have beards and dress conservatively in button up dress shirts and plain dark slacks, while the Indian students tended to be more casual in their clothing.
Razib,
When you say that myopia is heritable, do you mean that myopia itself is heritable and will always be expressed, or that it is correlated with known heritable traits and behaviors like intelligence and reading?
There are people who claim that myopia is environmental and reversible with behavior modification:
http://gettingstronger.org/2014/08/myopia-a-modern-yet-reversible-disease/
When you say that myopia is heritable, do you mean that myopia itself is heritable and will always be expressed, or that it is correlated with known heritable traits and behaviors like intelligence and reading?
heritable = > 0% of variation in trait is explainable by variation in genes. i doubt it is simply due to correlation fwiw. please google ‘norm of reaction’; i used the term for a reason.
re: my lack of mustache. i don’t like mustaches. normally i’m clean shaven, but i’m trying out a change. also, i tend to wear shorts most of the year, so probably not muslim looking. more often wear polos rather than button downs. also track suit…i run and lift most days now.
It’s not just hyperbole. As of 2002 (the most recent WHO data I have handy) malnutrition was responsible of the deaths of 12,400 Americans per year. Death is obviously a very extreme and rare outcome, but it’s a real outcome even in developed countries. Some countries do better than others of course – Sweden’s rate is about half the US’ for example. You may find the idea of someone starving in America ludicrous, but unfortunately it’s still a reality for many. Even with pretty generous programs like food stamps. Source: http://www.who.int/entity/healthinfo/statistics/bodgbddeathdalyestimates.xls
The minimum wage may be a poor way to help the poor or even the working poor, but I don’t think my right of centre leanings obligate me to be indifferent to the plight of the poor. It may push me towards different, more market based solutions.
In terms of the specifics relating to the minimum wage, Prof. Stephen Gordon from l’Université Laval has a great blog post on the subject if you’re interested. The long and short of it is that while raising the minimum wage has little effect on alleviating poverty, so long as it remains below 40% of the average hourly wage, it does not seem to do any harm to employment either. According to the US Department of Labor, the average hourly wage was $24.57, so that’d work out to a minimum wage of $9.83 an hour. Source: http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2006/11/when_the_minimu.html
Prof. Gordon’s blog is a pretty good resource on economics in general IMHO.
It’s not just hyperbole. As of 2002 (the most recent WHO data I have handy) malnutrition was responsible of the deaths of 12,400 Americans per year. Death is obviously a very extreme and rare outcome,
next time you pull lawyerly crap like this, i’m going to ban you. no warning. i did college debate, and frankly it was mostly bullshit like this. (another lawyerly response will result in banning)
re: minimum wage, i don’t have a strong personal opinion on the topic. i’m familiar with the mixed current empirical literature in this area.
Being conservative doesn't obligate me to be indifferent to people's suffering. It only obligates me to be pragmatic in how it is addressed.
With due respect though, if anything's being unhelpful or unconstructive, it's your habit of oversimplying people's political beliefs by misapplying terms like "libertarian" or "left."
next time you pull lawyerly crap like this, i'm going to ban you. no warning. i did college debate, and frankly it was mostly bullshit like this. (another lawyerly response will result in banning)
re: minimum wage, i don't have a strong personal opinion on the topic. i'm familiar with the mixed current empirical literature in this area.Replies: @CupOfCanada
I never did college debate. Engineering. Your blog though of course. My nose won’t be out of joint if you’d prefer I not comment here.
The point I’ve been trying to get at is wondering why the heck you find this surprising at all. It shouldn’t be surprising. I’m not some caricature of libertarianism just because I fall in that bottom right quadrant, and I don’t see why you should expect myself or others in that quadrant to be.
Being conservative doesn’t obligate me to be indifferent to people’s suffering. It only obligates me to be pragmatic in how it is addressed.
With due respect though, if anything’s being unhelpful or unconstructive, it’s your habit of oversimplying people’s political beliefs by misapplying terms like “libertarian” or “left.”