I am someone who typically distrusts surverys, but from having been at Anthrocon this year and having taken this myself, I can tell you more then anything it is thorough. I think the big conflict in the comments is one which can also be explained by the previous results and that is that furries are a mixed bag belief system wise. Clearly Growlithe is a very verbose and steadfast a-religious person.
I don't think anyone here implied that you guys were putting them on a pedestal, or saying they were more furry then others. People saying implications based upon results of data is something that unfortunately comes with the territory of surveys. It's probably why I distrust them. Because typically you don't hear the results first hand from the people that took it, you usually here it from a press association or individuals who might have specific agendas for such data.
And even when you have the data and have some conclusions I sometimes also disagree with the conclusions, though I do think you try not to jump too much at what the data is telling you. While sometimes it's interesting to mull over what the numbers are saying, I think sometimes it's just better to let the numbers do the talking, hopefully there will be more charts and numbers this time around, and will definately be interested in seeing the results.
I think the only question I had objection with on this survey, and as not having taken a previous one am not sure if it's new this time or not, was a set where it said. "Below are a list of emotions, on a scale of 1 to 7 state how much you believe animals can feel these emotions" and below there was a list of "joy, pleasure, anger, fear,..."
My bone with the question isn't that I am purely for or against the idea of animals feeling emotions, in fact I do believe animals can feel emotions in some regard, the problem is that their ability to do so falls onto one very important specification that is not addressed by the question, and that is the type of animal they are.
For example, if you're talking about a dolphin or a monkey the emotional scale would be closer to a 7. if you're talking about a worm, fly, or sponge the answers would be closer to a 1. I think that emotions are things that evolved into specific species for specific purposes, and therefore could not make a one size fits all conclusion for that particular question set.
Other then that I think the survey is evolving okay.
I am someone who typically distrusts surverys, but from having been at Anthrocon this year and having taken this myself, I can tell you more then anything it is thorough. I think the big conflict in the comments is one which can also be explained by the previous results and that is that furries are a mixed bag belief system wise. Clearly Growlithe is a very verbose and steadfast a-religious person.
I don't think anyone here implied that you guys were putting them on a pedestal, or saying they were more furry then others. People saying implications based upon results of data is something that unfortunately comes with the territory of surveys. It's probably why I distrust them. Because typically you don't hear the results first hand from the people that took it, you usually here it from a press association or individuals who might have specific agendas for such data.
And even when you have the data and have some conclusions I sometimes also disagree with the conclusions, though I do think you try not to jump too much at what the data is telling you. While sometimes it's interesting to mull over what the numbers are saying, I think sometimes it's just better to let the numbers do the talking, hopefully there will be more charts and numbers this time around, and will definately be interested in seeing the results.
I think the only question I had objection with on this survey, and as not having taken a previous one am not sure if it's new this time or not, was a set where it said. "Below are a list of emotions, on a scale of 1 to 7 state how much you believe animals can feel these emotions" and below there was a list of "joy, pleasure, anger, fear,..."
My bone with the question isn't that I am purely for or against the idea of animals feeling emotions, in fact I do believe animals can feel emotions in some regard, the problem is that their ability to do so falls onto one very important specification that is not addressed by the question, and that is the type of animal they are.
For example, if you're talking about a dolphin or a monkey the emotional scale would be closer to a 7. if you're talking about a worm, fly, or sponge the answers would be closer to a 1. I think that emotions are things that evolved into specific species for specific purposes, and therefore could not make a one size fits all conclusion for that particular question set.
Other then that I think the survey is evolving okay.