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New Tulpa Study: Early Observations and Preliminary Results


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Guest fordaplot

EDIT--- This forum doesn't like all my charts and graphs... see the post correctly here: http://tulpa.io/discuss/threads/plurality-study-informal-preliminary-results.182/

 

 

Hello, and thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the pilot survey for the ongoing research project on plurality. The influx of submissions seems to have stopped at exactly 100 completed surveys. Because of this, I figured that I ought to informally share some of the more interesting findings of my study and a few early observations.

 

For those of you that may have privacy concerns and worries about the confidentiality of survey responses, I hope this post may serve to quell those fears, as the manner in which I present the results here will emulate how I do so in the final published paper.

 

If you haven’t already, please complete the pilot survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ju2XnosAcgzGcnqYwvNp2Z5wH3Gg-blIhPWhds8V-FE/viewform

 

Below are my informal observations and preliminary results:

 

I. The demographics of the tulpa community have evolved since it was observed in 2014

 

Last year, Professor Samuel Veissiere conducted a survey in September 2014 that gathered data that included the impact of tulpas on their hosts and the demographics of the tulpa community. Below is a chart contrasting common data between his study and the ongoing one. Note that the 2015 data has not yet been corrected to only include tulpamancy systems that have at least one autonomous tulpa, a filter that I suspect Veissiere’s surveys went through.

 

800x500http://i.imgur.com/qhYzuE8.png[/img]

Source for 2014 statistics: http://somatosphere.net/2015/04/varieties-of-tulpa-experiences-sentient-imaginary-friends-embodied-joint-attention-and-hypnotic-sociality-in-a-wired-world.html

 

As you can see, there is a great difference in some of the data. However, I believe that this is less of a factor of a transformation within the community as it is a difference in research technique. I speculate that the difference in gender may be attributed to the fact that I made a greater effort to spread my survey to tulpa the tulpa.io and tulpa.im subcommunities, with have a high female and gender-nonconforming ratio. From what I observed, tulpa.info and reddit/tulpas (the majority of the respondants for Veissiere’s study) has maintained the 1/3 female/male gender difference.

 

The other contrast of significance is in the percentage of respondents that stated that plurality had improved their ability to cope with mental illness. I suspect that the difference may be attributed to the means by which the statistic was gained. Samuel V. personally contacted the tulpamancers with mental disorders following the completion of a survey to interview them, a prospect that may have resulted in selection bias and interviewer/observer bias. However, my statistic was garnered through the anonymous initial survey, which would be less prone to construe results.

 

 

II. Demographic difference between sub-communities

 

I intentionally spaced the time between when I would announce my study on different forums, websites, and IRC chats so that I could observe demographic and cultural differences as based on the survey responses. I drew the following conclusions:

 

[*]There is a distinct isolation between subcommunities with little communication and common users. Every announcement would cause a flood of responses from entirely new systems that would often exclusively identify themselves from the site I announced the study on.

 

 

[*]There is demographic divide between tulpa subcommunities (see chart below)

900x300http://i.imgur.com/a6kOdr5.png[/img]

 

As this chart shows, there is a distinct difference between certain tulpa subcommunities. From what I have observed, tulpa.io, tulpa.im, and tumblr share many of their active members, whereas r/tulpas and tulpa.info (and speculatively Rizon) have a similar relationship. I am not aware of any distinct cause for this clear divide. However, I have noticed a sociological distinction between these two worlds, with tulpa.io being more serious and rationally focused, whereas tulpa.info and r/tulpas have a less formal community. Therefore, older and less exuberant systems may choose to reside in the .io or .im communities as opposed to .info or reddit.

 

 

III. Preliminary results release

 

Below are graphs early, raw, uncorrected statistics gained from my survey:

 

800x600http://i.imgur.com/dI5UPeO.png[/img]

800x600http://i.imgur.com/MmPR2mQ.png[/img]

800x600http://i.imgur.com/hA9l6qv.png[/img]

900x600http://i.imgur.com/DebqSJ7.png[/img]

900x600http://i.imgur.com/85LsQ5t.png[/img]

900x600http://i.imgur.com/iqvEBlL.png[/img]

900x600http://i.imgur.com/52Aly1r.png[/img]

900x600http://i.imgur.com/bryGttc.png[/img]

(I was not able to attach all of the graphs due to the 10 image limit on tulpa.info- see 2 more charts here: http://tulpa.io/discuss/threads/plurality-study-informal-preliminary-results.182/)

 

The graphs are self explanatory for the most part, but I am currently working on a new survey and interview plan to extrapolate the cause for the relationships shown in the data. My goal is to have a working hypothesis for why there is a positive correlation between plurality and mental illness, and why tulpamancy may cause improvements in said disorders.

 

Thanks everyone. Stay tuned for more updates!

 

–Ford

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Guest fordaplot

2nd graph fixed! Thanks to everyone who pointed out the repeat

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You can adjust how the images appear on the page with [img=800x600]url.of/image[/img]. Of course it still won't display properly on mobile, but when does it ever?

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

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Guest fordaplot

You can adjust how the images appear on the page with [img=800x600]url.of/image[/img]. Of course it still won't display properly on mobile, but when does it ever?

 

Thank you! This post should be at least readable now

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