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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3404 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 2, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Why are gays over-represented in the arts and creative fields? Even in tech, I go to an artsy coding meetup and it's hosted in an LGBT space. I go to a discord of people building interesting things and they're 50% furries.

I would presume there's a biological/psychological explanation, if the effect is even real, but it's hard to find good answers. My first guess would be the same loosening of priors that allows for creativity also loosens the heterosexuality prior; but then why gay and not bi?

  1. Did you consider that people who do X meetups, more particularly X-Y meetups might not be representative of X? After all that programming meetup was hosted in an LGBT space.. which might just answer your question

  2. Did you consider selection bias? Programming requires a higher IQ, Gays have marginally higher IQ on average. P(Programmer | Gay) > P(Programmer | Hetero) ?

  3. Do you live in California or Washington or Portland... ?

  1. I didn't know it was an LGBT space until I walked in and saw the pride flags and pro-trans slogans. The meetup had been previously held in a neutral space. But this is just one data point. I can imagine that normies enter a discord server of furries and get put off, but then where do they go? I find it hard to find more 'normal' spaces.

  2. Do gays have higher IQ? This is news to me.

  3. No, I don't live in America or a 'liberal' city. But my town is full of students and young people, and we all live in Amerika.

On 2, just from the fact that openly gay men are more likely to be college educated they’re probably higher IQ than average.

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