I think this is mostly a community thing: it just so happened that some key figures in the two largest rationalist communities (SF and NY) were polyamorous, so it became popular relative to the general population, and probably also popular relative to the coasts’ populations.
I think that the effect is stronger than just that. Of the poly people associated with LW that I know, at least a quarter knew they were poly before they got into LW. Sure, it’s a small sample size, but I would be surprised if polyamorous people were less likely to be interested in rationality.
My guess is that it’s a combination of it existing among original LWers in the first place and LW culture being much more favorable to it than main stream.
I think this is mostly a community thing: it just so happened that some key figures in the two largest rationalist communities (SF and NY) were polyamorous, so it became popular relative to the general population, and probably also popular relative to the coasts’ populations.
I think that the effect is stronger than just that. Of the poly people associated with LW that I know, at least a quarter knew they were poly before they got into LW. Sure, it’s a small sample size, but I would be surprised if polyamorous people were less likely to be interested in rationality.
Datapoint: I was poly before joining LW.
This might be an interesting question to ask Yvain to put on the next mega survey.
I was also.
My guess is that it’s a combination of it existing among original LWers in the first place and LW culture being much more favorable to it than main stream.