"LessWrong Shows You Social Signals Before the Comment" by TurnTrout

About this episode

The episode discusses how social signals influence opinion formation in comment sections and proposes solutions to improve the interface.

When reading comments, you see is what other people think before reading the comment. As shown in an RCT, that information anchors your opinion, reducing your ability to form your own opinion and making the site's karma rankings less related to the comment's true value. I think the problem is fixable and float some ideas for consideration. The LessWrong interface prioritizes social information You read a comment. What information is presented, and in what order? The order of informatio...

People in this episode

Host: TurnTrout

Topics covered

• social signals
• commenting
• opinion formation
• karma rankings
• interface design

Keywords

• social information
• RCT
• opinion anchoring
• comment value
• LessWrong interface

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