It only indicates that experienced rationalists and proto-rationalists treat their beliefs in different ways. Proto-rationalists form a belief, play with it in their heads, and then do whatever they were going to do anyway - usually some variant on what everyone else does. Experienced rationalists form a belief, examine the consequences, and then act strategically to get what they want.
Alternate hypothesis: the experienced rationalists are also doing what everyone else (in their community) is doing, they just consider a different group of people their community.
My immediate thought was that there is a third variable controlling both experience in rationality and willingness to pay for cryonics, such as ‘living or hanging out in the bay area’.
Well, only 13% of “experienced rationalists” are signed up for cryonics, which hardly counts as “everyone else”—unless the thing they do because everyone else is doing it is “I’ll sign up for cryonics iff I think it’s worth it”, which kind of dilutes the meaning.
(Anecdata: in each of my social circles before I entered university, to a very good zeroth approximation either everyone smoked or nobody did, but nowadays it’s not uncommon for me to be among smokers and non-smokers at the same time. Sure, you could say that in some circles people smoke because everybody does, in some circles people don’t smoke because nobody doesn’t, and in some circles people smoke iff they like because everybody does that, but...)
As army1987 said, only a small percentage of experienced rationalists sign up for cryonics, so I wouldn’t expect there to be social pressure. I think a more likely explanation is that experienced rationalists feel less social pressure against signing up for cryonics.
Alternate hypothesis: the experienced rationalists are also doing what everyone else (in their community) is doing, they just consider a different group of people their community.
My immediate thought was that there is a third variable controlling both experience in rationality and willingness to pay for cryonics, such as ‘living or hanging out in the bay area’.
Well, only 13% of “experienced rationalists” are signed up for cryonics, which hardly counts as “everyone else”—unless the thing they do because everyone else is doing it is “I’ll sign up for cryonics iff I think it’s worth it”, which kind of dilutes the meaning.
(Anecdata: in each of my social circles before I entered university, to a very good zeroth approximation either everyone smoked or nobody did, but nowadays it’s not uncommon for me to be among smokers and non-smokers at the same time. Sure, you could say that in some circles people smoke because everybody does, in some circles people don’t smoke because nobody doesn’t, and in some circles people smoke iff they like because everybody does that, but...)
As army1987 said, only a small percentage of experienced rationalists sign up for cryonics, so I wouldn’t expect there to be social pressure. I think a more likely explanation is that experienced rationalists feel less social pressure against signing up for cryonics.