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Comment by CrazyStat

2 years ago

A bank sends out two different mailers to see which gets a higher response rate. A politician tests different versions of his stump speech to see which gets more applause. A standup comedian tries different variants of a joke to see which gets more laughs. A grocery store chain tests different store layouts to see which encourages more spending on expensive high margin items. A big box store tests different doorbuster sales to see which gets more people into the store. A city government tests whether changing a traffic light pattern decreases delays at the intersection.

Unless you’re a hermit you are an unwitting participant in nonconsensual human experiments on a daily basis.

Comedians should just pick one joke and stick to it, it's unethical otherwise as some people might miss the laughs and others might laugh too much.

I said the term of art thing to try to ward off a reply like this, I didn't want you to have to put in the effort.

  • Using weasel words doesn’t make your claim any more correct.

    • It's not "weasel words" -- there's a difference between an "experiment where city government changes traffic light patterns" and "experiment as in Institutional Review Board", and I suggest relaxing in general.

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