but then again the fact that these people had Reddit accounts at all points towards the former
A significant percentage of the accounts actually were newly created actually, maybe 30%-ish? I can’t tell whether they had a previous one or not, of course.
But agreed that more rigorous research is needed here, and interviews would be very helpful too.
I’m uncertain about the research ethics here for an RCT. I lean towards thinking it would be acceptable to introduce people to these seeds and instruct them to carry on discussions for some minimum amount of time, but only if they’re given a shorter form of this post in advance to provide informed consent, and the researcher ensures they understand it. But I suspect that this process would effectively weed out and/or inoculate most susceptible people from the research population. Still, if we could successfully implant one into even just a few people and observe their before/after behavior, that would be very interesting.
A significant percentage of the accounts actually were newly created actually, maybe 30%-ish? I can’t tell whether they had a previous one or not, of course.
But agreed that more rigorous research is needed here, and interviews would be very helpful too.
I’m uncertain about the research ethics here for an RCT. I lean towards thinking it would be acceptable to introduce people to these seeds and instruct them to carry on discussions for some minimum amount of time, but only if they’re given a shorter form of this post in advance to provide informed consent, and the researcher ensures they understand it. But I suspect that this process would effectively weed out and/or inoculate most susceptible people from the research population. Still, if we could successfully implant one into even just a few people and observe their before/after behavior, that would be very interesting.