Public Request for Feedback for EA Survey 2019

2019-06-16 General Operations

The annual EA Survey serves as a benchmark for better understanding the state of the Effective Altruism (EA) movement. It is a project of Rethink Charity with analysis and commentary from researchers at Rethink Priorities. Last year, we produced 12 posts that analyzed 2018 EA survey data, exploring how people get involved in EA, where they donate, what causes they support, geographic and demographic insights, and how EAs view their own community.

We’re looking to conduct the 2019 survey again very soon, but first we’d like to invite the community to give us feedback about what you would like to see changed or potentially included. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments section of this post. Please keep in mind that the survey is already about as long as we can possibly make it without fatiguing people, so we’re unlikely to be able to add much more to the survey without also taking something out. Suggestions for things to remove are also welcome.

Here’s a list of the questions we asked on last year’s survey.

Here are a few things that we already plan to change for next year:

  • We will be updating the options for where people first heard about EA to in line with which categories were popular last year (e.g., adding EA Global and podcasts, nuancing the “Other” category with additional options)
  • We expect to be adding a page of questions about skills people possess (requested by Ben Todd)
  • We expect to be adding some questions to help differentiate EAs’ involvement and engagement further (e.g., EAG attendance, and possibly other additional metrics)
  • We expect to add a question, in addition to the specific cause questions, about whether people prioritise the Long Term Future specifically, as discussed in last year’s cause post.
  • We will be removing and changing most of the extra credit section.

To give feedback, please email [email protected].

Here are the articles we produced using the 2018 data:

I – Community Demographics & Characteristics

II – Distribution & Analysis Methodology

III – How do people get involved in EA?

IV – Subscribers and Identifiers

V – Donation Data

VI – Cause Selection

VII- Group Membership

VIII- Where People First Hear About EA and Influences on Involvement

IX- Geographic Differences in EA

X- Welcomingness- How Welcoming is EA?

XI – How Long Do EAs Stay EA?

XII – Do EA Survey Takers Keep Their GWWC Pledge?

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