[PARTIALLY RETRACTED] Cortical Neuron Number Matches Intuitive Perceptions Of Moral Value Across Animals

[PARTIALLY RETRACTED — Scott's own EDIT: 'No longer confident in this post.'] Original research: Scott surveyed 50 Tumblr users (21 vegetarian, 29 not) on the relative moral value of animals (how many of each = 1 human) and compared the medians to the animals' cortical-neuron counts. He reports a striking match (53 cows = 1 human by neurons vs. 50 by survey; pig 38 vs 35; etc.), better-fitting than encephalization quotient, and reads it as mild support for intuitive moral-weighting. The retraction is because the prior post's premise — that intelligence tracks cortical-neuron count — no longer held up.

Quality 50 · Solid. Solid (scored-on-merit-then-docked). On merit a clever little original-research curio (own survey + a neat neuron-count correlation, a format Scott rarely attempts) but slight (648 words) and resting on a tiny, self-selected n=50 Tumblr sample — already only Solid (~57). Docked for the retraction (the load-bearing neuron-count↔intelligence premise is disavowed) to A=50; confidence Med per the retracted-post convention.

Claude’s paradigm shift 35 · Slight. Slight–Moderate (35). The neuron-count-tracks-moral-intuition correspondence is a mildly novel empirical curio, but it's exploratory and builds on the prior (now-doubted) post's claim.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. Negligible (1). A tiny, retracted survey curio; it touches the EA animal-moral-weight discourse ('eat beef not chicken') but contributes no durable result.