Thanks for running this survey and sharing these results!
Minor point:
Another striking thing is how little people think that a larger population is better [...] However, we also collected qualitative responses to this question, and found that many of the people who preferred the smaller civilization over the bigger were unwilling to accept the stipulations. Among the 74 respondents who strongly preferred the smaller civilization, the most commonly given reasons were more resources (25), less crowded (22), overpopulation (10), and environmental issues (8), in spite of the explicit claim that āthere are no issues with resource depletion, environmental degradation, or overpopulation.ā Nevertheless, 125 of the 403 respondents reported being indifferent between the two civilizations, so an unwillingness to accept the stipulation cannot be everything thatās going on here. [emphasis added]
It seems like unwillingness to accept stipulations is just/āalmost as plausible an explanation of the indifferent responses as it is of the responses favouring the smaller civilization. People may have thought the bigger civilization would be better if not for problems like resource issues or overcrowding, but that those problems would or might occur, and thus they end up unsure which is better, or indifferent between them.
Thanks for running this survey and sharing these results!
Minor point:
It seems like unwillingness to accept stipulations is just/āalmost as plausible an explanation of the indifferent responses as it is of the responses favouring the smaller civilization. People may have thought the bigger civilization would be better if not for problems like resource issues or overcrowding, but that those problems would or might occur, and thus they end up unsure which is better, or indifferent between them.