Claims

2,653 claims by 33 public figures and organisations, checked against the public record. Each has its quote, source, verdict and evidence. Read them without a key; browse by person.

28,548 claims · page 243 of 286

28,548 claims, sorted by newest said. Choose a claim to read it in full.
VerdictPersonKindSaidClaimTopic
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 7 Dec 2013 There was a small fringe of this culture 30 years ago. Today, it’s maintstream. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 7 Dec 2013
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 7 Dec 2013 We never invest — no matter how much money we are likely to make — in things we are not proud to be associated with. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 7 Dec 2013
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 7 Dec 2013 But to me, it was a very smart bet. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 7 Dec 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 In any case, there is an overriding moral issue. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 So commentators on trade and immigration should stress the cosmopolitan perspective, knowing that the practical imperatives of the… Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 At least since the 19th century, the interest of economists in personal liberty can be easily documented. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 You wouldn't dream of producing a study that counted "men only" or "whites only," at least not without specific, clearly stated reasons for… Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 A distressingly large portion of the debate in many countries analyzes the effects of higher immigration on domestic citizens alone and… Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 One enormous issue is international migration. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 Imagine that it is your professional duty to report a cost-benefit analysis of liberalizing immigration policy. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 So why report cost-benefit results only for United States citizens or residents, as is sometimes done in analyses of both international… Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 Still, we should be obsessing over how many of those trillions can actually be realized. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 The nation-state is a good practical institution, but it does not provide the final moral delineation of which people count and which do… Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Tyler Cowen Not checkable 16 Mar 2013 For a profession concerned with precision, it is remarkable how infrequently we economists talk about those rather large numbers. Tyler Cowen · Not checkable · 16 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I find a naturalistic understanding of human nature to be indispensable to leading a wise and mature life, and it is often exhilarating. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I agree with Henrichs et al. that too many conclusions about human psychology have been based on convenience samples of university… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Unresolvable GiveWell Promise 12 Mar 2013 If GiveWell reaches its reserves limit, it would grant out unrestricted funds and count those grants in its money moved. GiveWell · Promise · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 the biggest addition I would make today is our new understanding of moral psychology Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 The most common ways GiveWell's major donors find it are online searches, referral links and Peter Singer. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 Though I disagree with that one idea, I would recommend it as one of the best and most important books on violence I have read. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 Supernatural events don't exist. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 As in 2011, a majority of the growth in GiveWell's overall money moved in 2012 came from donors giving $10,000 or more. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 It's not true, though, that anyone is fated to be violent. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Mostly true Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Human intelligence is not particularly dependent on geography. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 The more ways that knowledge and analytical skills penetrate the population, the better. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 Organizations GiveWell designated as "standouts" until November 2012, when it stopped using the designation, received fairly small amounts of money moved. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Own records only GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 GiveWell currently collects donation information at the individual level and can follow how donors change their giving over time. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Own records only GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 The GiveWell figure in the comparison chart includes only giving processed through its website, not all money moved, to match the online-giving data available for the others. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I'd have to single out language. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Unresolvable Steven Pinker Prediction 12 Mar 2013 Pinker suspects that the strange problem of consciousness, such as whether an upload of a brain would feel anything, will never be answered, since these puzzles may be artifacts of human intuition. Steven Pinker · Prediction · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 In 2012, GiveWell tracked $9.57 million in money moved based on its recommendations, a significant increase over past years. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 There is no good evidence that violent video games cause real-life violence. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 As in 2011, the most common response from donors giving $10,000 or more asked how GiveWell changed their giving was 'I would have given a similar amount to another international charity.' GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 Funds given to GiveWell for re-granting are counted in its money moved figures based on how GiveWell granted them out. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Unresolvable GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 GiveWell's website traffic continued to grow in 2012. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Pinker said his claim was not about hunter-gatherer societies specifically, but about traditional societies living in a state of anarchy, not under the control of a centralized state. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 My own view is that none of us should sign on to the bogus implication that IF a traditional people has high rates of violence THEN it… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 No one is smart enough to invent anything worthwhile on his or her own Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I don't think we have any way to weight the relative influences of all these factors. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 Atheism is simply the denial of one set of beliefs, and it has never been a priority to stipulate one among the many things I don't believe… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 Never be a disciple or yes-person of any thinker, no matter how brilliant --no one is right all of the time. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 it's not implausible that occasional, mild, temporary depression in response to an identifiable setback is an adaptation Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 GiveWell's web traffic tends to peak in December of each year. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 In 2012, GiveWell's #1 charity received about 60% of money moved, and its #2 and #3 charities each received over $1 million as a result of its recommendation. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 No, my response was intellectual. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 Most of GiveWell's donors giving $10,000 or more are young for major donors and work in finance or technology. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 The most interesting claim is that societies advance technologically, culturally, and (I would add) morally when they sit in a wide… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Unresolvable GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 GiveWell's money moved grew robustly in 2012 for every donor size category. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 The only sense of consciousness we don't understand is whether the artificially intelligent computer or robot we build would subjectively… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 A major driver of GiveWell's web traffic growth was Google AdWords, which GiveWell received for free from Google through the Google Grants program. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable GiveWell Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 This comparison provides evidence that the growth we saw in 2012 is due not to generalized increases in online giving or use of charity… GiveWell · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Current science indicates that subjectivity arises from certain kinds of information-processing in the brain. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Unresolvable Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Pinker said that, as far as he could tell, the conclusion that non-state societies had higher per-capita violence than 20th-century state societies was not controversial among anthropologists who examine quantitative data. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 GiveWell's website now processes more than twice as much giving as GuideStar's and about 80% as much as Charity Navigator's, though it offers far fewer charities. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 rape is horrific no matter what its motives are, and we know that rates of rape can be reduced Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 After having written Better Angels I now have a stronger intellectual and moral commitment to Enlightenment humanism, classical liberalism… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Mostly true Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Whatever gender differences exist in abilities are statistical and small and say nothing about any individual. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 And it would be unethical and wasteful not to encourage every person, regardless of gender (or any other irrelevant factor) to pursue her… Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 The group of donors giving GiveWell $10,000 or more grew from 55 to 96, while the group's characteristics changed little. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 Of the $3.2 million donated by major donors who responded to GiveWell's survey, $1.9 million (60%) came from donors under age 40. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not researched Steven Pinker Citation 12 Mar 2013 Christopher Ferguson's extensive literature review showed that claims linking violent video games to real-life violence are bogus. Steven Pinker · Citation · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not researched Steven Pinker Citation 12 Mar 2013 Pinker's paper with Sahin and Halgren argues that functional specialization (modules) in the brain more likely exists at the circuit level than at the level of Brodmann-size areas. Steven Pinker · Citation · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 It's hard to think of an environment in which the human hallmarks of intelligence, sociality, and language would NOT be adaptive Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 Unrestricted funds given to GiveWell are not counted in its 2012 money moved figures. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I would recommend "How the Mind Works." Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Unresolvable Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 The conclusion about high violence in non-state societies is highly controversial among non-quantitative anthropologists, with objections often political and moral rather than empirical. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 In 2012 GiveWell granted funds given for re-granting 70% to AMF, 20% to GiveDirectly and 10% to SCI, its recommended split. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not researched Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Better Angels presents statistics showing US rates of rape are down by almost 80% since their peak. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Unresolvable Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 There appear to be some small sex differences in the tails of the distributions of spatial and abstract mathematical ability. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Science and research methods
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 I think we're well on the way to solving the so-called easy problem Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not checkable Steven Pinker Not checkable 12 Mar 2013 So I don't agree that it solves the strange (aka "hard") problem of consciousness. Steven Pinker · Not checkable · 12 Mar 2013
Not researched GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 In 2012, $1.1 million went to "learning grants" that GiveWell recommended to Good Ventures. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Steven Pinker Factual 12 Mar 2013 Rates of violence respond to certain features of the environment, such as the incentives of an effective police and criminal justice system and the surrounding norms of legitimate retaliation, but not to video games. Steven Pinker · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Philosophy, ethics and society
Unresolvable GiveWell Factual 12 Mar 2013 As in prior years, search traffic (organic and AdWords) provided the majority of traffic to GiveWell's website. GiveWell · Factual · 12 Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 In 2008 there were 100M CUDA-capable GPUs, 150K CUDA downloads, 1 GPU supercomputer, 60 university courses and 4,000 academic papers. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Technology
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Facial Recognition 3D Objects Brands Books & CD Covers Wine Labels Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Resolved true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 Shazam, which uses GPUs for audio search, handled about 300M user queries per month by 2013. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Economics and markets
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Face Works AdvancedReal-Time Character Performance Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 1st LTE SDR Modem Computational Camera Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Rendering the HumanFace uncanny valley human likeness Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Mostly true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 The NVIDIA GRID VCA MAX model costs $39,900 plus a $4,800/yr software license covering unlimited devices. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Science of GTC 3D Genomics Baylor & Rice Gigapixel Camera Arrays Duke & Arizona Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Mostly true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 The NVIDIA GRID appliance provides a remote GPU-accelerated workspace for up to 16 concurrent users. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 NVIDIA GRID EnterpriseEcosystem Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Wave Works Real-TimeBeaufort-Scale Ocean Simulation Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Edge Detection 60x Histogram of Oriented Gradients 5x Corner Detection 8x Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Resolved true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 The NVIDIA GRID VCA BASE model costs $24,900 plus a $2,400/yr software license covering unlimited devices. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly false Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 The NVIDIA GRID VCA is the world's first visual computing appliance. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Mostly true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 Piz Daint is Europe's fastest GPU-based supercomputer. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 AI compute, hardware and data
Resolved true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 By 2013 there were 430M CUDA-capable GPUs, 1.6M CUDA downloads, 50 GPU supercomputers, 640 university courses and 37,000 academic papers. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Technology
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Stacked DRAM Unified Virtual Memory Dynamic Parallelism FP64 CUDA Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Mostly true Jensen Huang Factual Mar 2013 The GRID VCA BASE has 8 Kepler GPUs (4GB each), 16 CPU threads and 192 GB memory; the MAX has 16 GPUs, 32 threads and 384 GB. Jensen Huang · Factual · Mar 2013 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 Logan Parker Denver CPU Maxwell GPU FinFET Kepler GPU Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Not checkable Jensen Huang Not checkable Mar 2013 GPU Roadmap 20082010 2012 2014 DP GFLOPS per Watt Kepler Tesla Fermi Maxwell Volta Jensen Huang · Not checkable · Mar 2013
Mostly true Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 30 Jan 2013 Nick Bostrom does meta-strategy work as well as object-level work on anthropic probabilities and the parliamentary model for normative uncertainty. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 30 Jan 2013 Field building and careers
Mostly true Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 30 Jan 2013 Nick Bostrom hosts researchers such as Anders Sandberg, who write papers about uploading timelines relevant to policy decisions. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 30 Jan 2013 Field building and careers
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 30 Jan 2013 Are you sure the same way of thinking wouldn’t prevent you from working on any important problem? Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 30 Jan 2013
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 30 Jan 2013 They didn’t work like that. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 30 Jan 2013
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 30 Jan 2013 If you’re still like, “No, no, we must think more meta” after a year, then I don’t believe you’re the sort of person who will ever act. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 30 Jan 2013
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 30 Jan 2013 When people constantly say “maybe we should do some other thing,” I would say, “Come to an interim decision, start acting on the interim… Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 30 Jan 2013
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Steven Pinker

Open its page

Factual Science and research methods

“As far as I can tell, this conclusion is not controversial among anthropologists who care about numbers”

Steven Pinker, answering in Reddit AMA 12 March 2013 Steve Pinker Reddit AMA Transcript (Reddit AMA)

Pinker said that, as far as he could tell, the conclusion that non-state societies had higher per-capita violence than 20th-century state societies was not controversial among anthropologists who examine quantitative data.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2013-03-12. True: among anthropologists and archaeologists who publish quantitative estimates of violent death rates, there was broad agreement that non-state societies had higher per-capita rates of violent death than 20th-century state societies, with no significant body of quantitative work disputing it. Mostly true: broad agreement existed, but a few quantitative scholars disputed the size of the gap or the sampling of the data without disputing its direction. Mixed: quantitatively oriented anthropologists were roughly split, or the dispute concerned which data were valid in a way that left the conclusion substantially contested. Mostly false: a substantial number of quantitative anthropologists had published work challenging the conclusion (e.g. on biased samples or definitions), so it was contested, though some support existed. False: quantitative anthropological work predominantly rejected the conclusion.

Evidence

  1. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Philip Thomson and John Halstead (independent research report; hosted on pdf.stafforini.com, a mirror; also cited as SSRN 4466809)
    “Also the list claims to show only deaths from warfare (though other authors have disputed whether this is in fact the case), which is interesting but we’d also be interested to know about violent deaths of all types.”
  2. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Philip Thomson and John Halstead (independent research report; hosted on pdf.stafforini.com, a mirror; also cited as SSRN 4466809)
    “There are various reasons why the other societies on Bowles list are probably not good analogues for pre-agricultural populations.”
  3. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Philip Thomson and John Halstead (independent research report; hosted on pdf.stafforini.com, a mirror; also cited as SSRN 4466809)
    “The very high rates of violent death you can see in Table 1 (avg. 30.4%) are not necessarily typical of small-scale societies globally.”
  4. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Philip Thomson and John Halstead (independent research report; hosted on pdf.stafforini.com, a mirror; also cited as SSRN 4466809)
    “The evidence suggests that the 20th and 21st Centuries had lower rates of lethal violence than pre-agricultural times. Despite its wars and genocides, the 20th Century has lower rates of lethal violence than ethnographically-observed and archeologically-observed hunter-gatherers”
  5. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Unknown (PDF hosted at pdf.stafforini.com; authors Philip Thomson and John Halstead, SSRN abstract 4466809)
    “5. Frank Marlowe only included killings of Hadza by other Hadza, not by neighbouring groups, in his data on annual violent mortality.”
  6. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Unknown (PDF hosted at pdf.stafforini.com; authors Philip Thomson and John Halstead, SSRN abstract 4466809)
    “Lloyd Warner, who compiled the Murngin data, counted 100 deaths in warfare over a 20 year period but was sure he’d under-counted so he simply doubled the number to 200 in giving his final estimate.”
  7. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Unknown (PDF hosted at pdf.stafforini.com; authors Philip Thomson and John Halstead, SSRN abstract 4466809)
    “There are only a handful of reliable, quantitative studies of violence among pre-agricultural appropriate hunter-gatherers”
  8. How violent was the pre-agricultural world? Unknown (PDF hosted at pdf.stafforini.com; authors Philip Thomson and John Halstead, SSRN abstract 4466809)
    “The fact that the ‘violent deaths/total deaths’ is higher in the 20th Century does not show that the 20th Century was more violent.”
  9. Did Warfare Among Ancestral Hunter-Gatherers Affect the Evolution of Human Social Behaviors? Science (Samuel Bowles, 324: 1293-1298) · 5 June 2009
    “Notwithstanding a number of insightful recent studies (2–4), however, lethal intergroup conflict among hunter-gatherers during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene remains a controversial subject, with little agreement on either its extent or consequences (5, 6).”
  10. The prehistory of violence and war: Moving beyond the Hobbes–Rousseau quagmire Journal of Peace Research (Oxford Academic); author Tibor Rutar · 1 July 2023
    “Pinker’s (2011: 49) famous figures – drawn from Bowles’ (2009) nomadic HG sample and analysis – which purported to reveal that prehistoric warfare was highly lethal, were recently rebutted by Fry & Söderberg’s (2013a) larger and ostensibly more accurate sample.”
  11. Data review: ethnographic and archaeological evidence on violent deaths Our World in Data · 2 August 2013
    “But on average they tend to be significantly higher than in modern state societies and the world today.”
  12. A 2022 Update on Rates of Prestate Violence Steven Pinker (stevenpinker.com) · 2022 Own record
    “Among the most contentious claims in Better Angels was that pre-state societies had far higher rates of lethal violence than state societies—even those of the 20th C, with its wars & genocides”

Reasoning

The evidence shows support for the direction of the conclusion (E4, E11) and later disputes over the data and samples (E1–E3, E10). The only clearly pre-claim source (E9) concerns the extent of Pleistocene intergroup conflict, not the comparison with 20th-century states, so the evidence does not establish how far quantitative anthropologists disputed the conclusion as of 2013-03-12.

Cite this claim

Steven Pinker, “Pinker said that, as far as he could tell, the conclusion that non-state societies had higher per-capita violence than 20th-century state societies was not controversial among anthropologists who examine quantitative data.” (said 12 March 2013). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_bf340bca21fa, method 0.1.0+28da144b. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_bf340bca21fa

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts and scores are made. The same data is on Hugging Face under CC BY 4.0.