Methodology

How a reflection works, what is counted, and what a result can and cannot tell you.

Who takes part

Anyone can take part, and everyone who does has chosen to. Participants are a self-selected group. A result describes their current answers, not the views of a country or of the world.

How a reflection works

1. Instinct. Each topic opens with its question and a 15-second timer. If the time runs out, no opening answer is kept.
2. Arguments. Where a topic includes arguments, they come next, one at a time, alternating between opposing cases. You say whether each argument holds. The page does not say which side an argument is on. Topics without arguments go straight to the next step.
3. Considered answer. The opening question is asked again, without a timer. This is the answer that counts in the public result.
4. Conviction. You say how strongly you hold that position, on four levels. No opinion is recorded without a conviction.

What is counted

• Each account has one current answer per question version. A new answer replaces it. When an account is deleted, its current answer stays in the public result as an anonymous vote, with no link to the person, and leaves the count among confirmed accounts.
• The public result counts every current answer, from guests and signed-in members alike. Answers excluded for abuse are not counted.
• Signed-in members also see a count limited to confirmed accounts. It overlaps with the public count and is never added to it.
• Each option's percentage is its share of the current answers. No opinion is an option and is counted. An option nobody has chosen shows zero.
• Conviction is stored with each answer and never changes the count.
• A save that is retried is recognized and counted once.

Question versions and languages

Every question has a version that fixes its meaning and its options. If the meaning changes, a new version begins and its results are kept apart. A clearer wording that keeps the meaning and the options stays in the same version, so its results continue. Each saved answer records the exact wording that was shown, in the language you used. Every language shares the same options, so answers in all languages are counted together. Translations are reviewed before they are published, and no machine translation runs while you answer.

What we measure about a reflection

We record how each reflection unfolds: the time spent on each step, the timed opening answer, which arguments you said hold, and how far you got. We also record whether you arrived through a shared link, whether you revealed the result, switched language or opened sharing before answering, and the time since your previous answer when you answer again. These measurements help us understand how people reflect. They never change how answers are counted. Privacy explains what is stored.

Abuse limits

Rate limits and a human-verification check protect the count from automated and high-volume use. Rate limits can slow many saves from one network, but an answer is never excluded because of the position it takes, because several people share an IP address, or because someone answered quickly.

Circles and organizations

Circle and organization results are counted the same way, from the current answers given in that circle or organization. Circle answers never enter the public result. After answering Humanity Asks questions in an organization, a person can add those answers to Pulse. Each one then becomes that person's public answer to the question and replaces any earlier one. The organization does not see who added theirs.

• A circle result is shown only to members of that circle, and only from 5 answers. A circle does not set a different number.
• An organization result is shown only to members of that organization. The minimum group size for organizational reporting is 10 when the result includes everyone. A question asked of one group uses the number that group sets, from 2 to 2000, starting at 10. A result is not shown when fewer than that many eligible answers would be included.
• These thresholds are not a guarantee of anonymity.
• An organization result changes only after at least 3 more people have answered or changed their answer, so no single answer can be watched as it arrives. When answers are removed, the result is updated the next day.

Limits

A result does not prove a cause, verify identities, guarantee anonymity or certify neutrality. Confirming an email does not prove that an account is one unique person.