This is the first of n many result posts for the second survey I hosted (it is quite lengthy, so I decided to split it into parts). However, you can already download the full unedited data as a .csv file here, or this awesomely edited .ods file I’m working with (that is still under construction) here, if you prefer not to read my commentary.

The survey received 277 responses. I give almost all the numbers as percentages; when it’s interesting I’ll add how many people responded to a particular question. Often it’s almost all of them.

I also made a set of 22 predictions about the results without having seen any of them. You can look at them here if you’re curious, though some won’t make sense without having seen the question. (The red ones are just the ones I think are the most interesting, I still don’t know whether they’re true.) I think it’s good practice to do this; in particular it shows you if you’re overconfident (most people are) and helps you be better calibrated. I’ll mention it every time a result gives the answer to one of my predictions, and at some point I’ll post a summary.

Alright, let’s get into it! There are eight sections, this is for the first two.

Question 1: Did you take the previous survey?

Alright, cool. For those who are curious, the previous survey was much smaller, just ten questions. See here for the reddit post and here for the reddit result post (which links back to this blog).

Question 2: What is your opinion of Sam Harris?

Sam Harris has a favorability rating of 85%. This is up from 81% on the last survey. Variance? Or because it’s longer and fewer less invested people took it? Or because it got less exposure? In any case, it still doesn’t look like the board is full of people who hate Sam.

I won a prediction here; I bet with 90% confidence that his favorability rating would be bewteen 70% and 90% (of course, that was done knowing the results from the first survey).

We shall map these results onto numbers like so: the best option (Very favorable) is a 0, the next best option (Favorable) is a 1, and it goes down to Very unfavorable, which is a 4. (Uncertain doesn’t count for anything.) I’ll do the same for every question where it’s applicable, so that in the end we can compare favorability of various… things…

Sam Harris’ mean approval is 0.81 and his median approval is Favorable, based on 274 responses (that’s everyone who answered something on the 0-4 scale, so in this case anything other than “Uncertain”).

Question 3: How many podcast episodes have you listened to?

Another question which was there in the first survey; here are the old results:

Very similar results here.

Question 4: What is your favorite episode? […]



See this file for results, the top 3 are Forbidden Knowledge (Charles Murray) with 7 picks, and Shouldering the Burden of History (Dan Carlin) and What is Technology Doing to Us? (Tristan Harris) with 6 picks each.

Question 5: What is your least favorite episode? […]

This got the most boring answers imaginable. We irnoically got The Best Podcast Ever (Omar Azis) leading with 15 picks, Forbidden Knowledge (Murray) and Identity & Honesty (Klein) with 13 picks, and What is true? (Peterson) with 12. Yeah, this couldn’t possibly be less exiting. Here is the file.

Question 6: Comparing now to seven months ago (not considering the name-change), the podcast…

Another repeat question, here are the results from the previous survey:

Quite simlar, but the newer ones probably make more sense since the important “Don’t Know” option is there. Still more people thinking it’s getting worse vs better.

Question 7: Episode #147 featured new intro music. How much do you like the new music compared to the old?

The new intro music is unpopular, but not as unpopular as one might think (given that Sam apparently already removed it due to the negative reception). It has a mean approval of 2.43 (remember, 0 is best and 4 worst) and a median approval of Less (that’s a 3), based on 197 responses (that’s again only counting the five which map onto the 0-4 point scale). Thus, The new intro music is significantly less popular than Sam Harris, but it won’t be the least popular thing we’ll look at.

“Other” Responses:

it’s cheesy

I’ll get used to it, but I’m nostalgic for the old tune being a listener since episode 1.

It’s time for a change but it’s a little limp.

I care so little.

Haven’t listened to yet, but do want to now.

Don’t care

I don’t care

I couldn’t tell you what the old music sounded like (even though I’ve listened to over 50 of the podcasts). The into music is totally irrelevant to me.

Truly don’t care

Not noticed it, I skip intro anyway

Don’t care

who gives a fuck?

I don’t like any intro music

Who cares?

needs more cowbell

They’re both a little kooky. I liked the previous song slightly more

Please replace it with the SLAM Harris instrumental !

Question 8: Please check all of Sam’s books that you’ve read at least half of in the past or are actively reading right now.

Damn! You guys have read so many books! And here I thought no-one read books anymore, particularly not when the author has a super popular podcast. This is counting everyone who hasn’t ticked any book as a 0, and obviously adds up the number of ticks for everyone else.

I lost a prediction on this; I predicted with 70% confidence that less than a third of respondents would have read any of Sam’s books; I was super far off.

Here are the results by book:

Next time you disagree with someone on reddit, remember how well-read they are! Especially if you’re among those people who hasn’t read anything. Maybe they know more than you do? (I’m joking.)

The mean number of books read is 2.28, the median is 2. (Based on all 277 responses.) I would be quite surprised if people lied about having read books, so this should be legit. Later I’ll look at some correlations between people who’ve read a lot, there might or might not be interesting things there.

Question 9: Please evaluate the following claim: Sam should do more to distance himself from some specific people on the right.



Quite a bit of support for this idea, as anyone would have expected. The “Other” responses were:

Give me a break.

Sam should point out his differences with the right as much as(or more if he believes he is left) his simularities.

Not exactly distance himself, but to call out on Shapiro’s and Peterson’s bullshit.

Sam should be honest about his politics and if he’s associating himself with so many people on the right, maybe that’s for a reason engage in the dialectics

Rubin

Not if it means he is not being truthful.

Sam distancing himself from some specific people on the right has a mean approval of 1.86 and a median of Neutral, based on 264 responses. It is more popular than The new intro music, but less popular than Sam Harris.

Question 10: What is your favorite podcast?

I listed a bunch of choices here, but people could tick other and write down their own thing. There might be an advantage to those that were listed, but oh well (advantage of sets of choices is the uniform format). Here is a chart of all that were mentioned at least twice.

Others:

I don’t have a favorite podcast. They all add different voices to the conversation. There are none that I listen to all episodes of.

Not a regular listener of any of them

I don’t have a favorite

I like that crime one by the Australian guy and gal

Answers choosing more than one, if they exist, are not counted. If I say one, you get to pick one.

Now we’re getting to section #2 on meditation.

Question 11: Do you believe that meditation could, with enough practice, lead to profound and useful experiences for most people?

Others:

Not “believe” but have experienced first-hand as fact

No benefits that couldn’t be offered by other practices

Having solid evidence (such as first-hand experience) is a subset of believing!

Anyway, the consensus here is pretty strong. Onward.

Question 12: Do you meditate regularly?

(The \ are there so that openoffice/calc actually looks for the symbol ( instead of thinking it’s a regular expression.)

So it seems like a significant majority has tried this thing that they probably wouldn’t have if not for Sam, but only about a quarter have become dailiy meditators.

Question 13: Regarding the Waking Up Course, please check all that apply.

I vaguely recall Sam saying that only a tenth of his audience are supporters, but here it’s more than 40%. Only a third of respondents think it’s too expensive – perhaps a bit more, since some who don’t care probably only skimmed the questions, but still not that many. A good chunk is planning to do this thing but hasn’t started yet. This 3% number looks like good news for Sam.

Question 14: If you meditate, please check all that apply.

A tenth of you guys have been to silent retreats and done nothing for several days in a row. That’s pretty hardcore. On the other hand, I have no idea what’s wrong with the 32% who don’t think meditation is hard.

I lost a prediction on this one; I predicted with a 70% confidence that less than a tenth of respondents have entered a highly unpleasasnt state of mind through meditation, but it’s twice that common. Still only about a forth as common as a highly pleasant state.

This is another one where I’ll have a look at some conditional results at some point.

Question 15: If you have achieved full mindfulness at some point, please estimate the number of hours of practice you’ve had up to that point […]

Several people have pointed out that it’s unclear what “full mindfulness” is. Okay, but are you interested in how long people took to get to some place that they call full mindfulness? I suspect quite a few people are. And if yes, how else would you find out? I can’t tell you what exactly full mindfulness is, and I don’t think I trying to define it would be a good idea. The only easy way to get any data on this is to ask people and take their word.

Here are the responses (in decreasing order): 7200, 5000, 1000, 500, 250, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 70, 60, 60, 50, 50, 50, 50, 40, 40, 40, 30, 30, 25, 16, 10, 10, 2, 2, 2, 1

So it seems like you have an ok chance to get there in 100 hours. Maybe. Alternatively, the top 2 are the only ones who have actually achieved full mindfuless, and everyone else is confused. (Or maybe they mean different things etc.)

The mean of this data set is 466.3. The median is 50.

Question 16: If you have any comments about the survey thus far, for example if there was a question on which you weren’t able to give the answer you wanted, feel free to leave a comment here. Otherwise, please leave it blank.

Not clear what “full mindfulness” means and it seems rather subjective.

God help me

Too many good episodes to choose 1 favorite from. And regarding meditation: I miss the option of trying to do it daily but failing to do it for a stretch of time.

I’m not certain what “full mindfulness” is

Some answers I have are more complex, such as regarding Sam’s interaction with people on the right. I don’t believe he should “distance himself” in terms of who he brings on as guests, so long as he challenges toxic right-wing views and calls out dishonesty. This is especially true among those he is grouped in with in the IDW. By not doing so, the IDW is steadily becoming something I do not wish Sam to be associated with.

I’d love to know what you think ” full mindfulness” is…

Intro music “Haven’t yet” answer shouldn’t include “& I don’t want to now”.

(If you do do it now, just pick one of the other responses? I don’t get this.)

What is „full mindfulness“ m?

You didn’t have a no answer for some of the questions

Question “Regarding the Waking Up Course, please check all that apply.” doesn’t seem to have an ‘I don’t use it’ option.

very difficult to answer previous question accurately

some of the other podcasts are also great, I genuinly dislike it when he talks about meditation on the podcast because I have heard all the talking poimts

Which ‘specific people on the right’?

This survey is not designed to find out people’s actual opinions of Sam. I am not optimistic about the rest of the survey. Please research survey methodology before starting another one.

(No.)

I’ve only just listened his youtube speeches, debates with believers, thoughts on religion and the likes.

The Waking Up Course question does not have an option for “I don’t really care about this”

I find it odd that Hardcore History wasn’t one of the default choices for Favorite Podcast, given its massive popularity and Dan Carlin being on Waking Up.

(Well, my way of finding a list of podcasts to include was to reddit search the word “podcast” and pick a bunch of the recommendations that people made when someone asked for other podcasts like Waking Up (which happened a bunch of times). You are totally correct that it should have been an option, since 4 people chose it even though it was absent.)

I don’t want to use the Waking Up app because it is Sam Harris. The questions about achieving mindfullness are weird and non-objective.

I listen to and enjoy about half of the podcasts on the list but it’s probably too difficult to choose a favorite tbh

That’s it for section #2. But, I’ve promised that this survey would help us find out whether this sub hates Jordan Peterson, and it’s time to deliver on that promise, so let’s do that one. (Obviously, “hate” is hyperbolic, I don’t suspect that most people feel actual hatred towards JP, and I didn’t ask.)

Question 17: What is your opinion of Jordan Peterson?



Jordan B. Peterson has a favorability rating of 31%, and an unfavorability rating of 48%. I’d say that’s not quite hate, but it is definitely leaning negative. His mean approval is 2.36, and the median is Neutral, based on 270 responses. He is slightly more popular than The new intro music, but less popular than Sam distancing himself from some specific people on the right.

∴ ∴ ∴