preferences / the cycles

THE CYCLES

a model that likes A more than B, likes B more than C — and likes C more than A — is going in a circle. no ranked list of favourites can explain a circle. these are every circle we found, drawn. the one clear pattern: Fable at low thinking effort runs 32 circles; at high effort, 12. thinking straightens most of them — then max effort bends a few back (18).

WHERE THE CIRCLES COME FROM

Cycles are counted from the position-checked pair answers (the model asked both ways round, and agreeing with itself), not from the single strips on the other pages — so this page shows the details shipped with the run and checks the counts against them in your browser. A model missing from this page showed no circle — but a model that rarely commits can barely be tested for one: silence hides circles. The five Fable rows commit the most, so they get the most chances to be caught circling. Read the counts with that in mind. Many "discovered" circles run through a word the model reads two ways — Georgia the state and Georgia the country, china the material and China the nation. The circle is often the two meanings taking turns.