Executive summary: The author presents a working model of factors that attract or repel university students from Effective Altruism (EA) based on their experience as a co-organizer of an EA student group, aiming to provide insights for community builders to optimize their efforts.
Key points:
The author noticed significant attrition in their EA student group membership, prompting them to develop a mental model to understand the factors contributing to this trend.
Overarching factors like economic incentives and self-interest play a role in attrition, but the author is more interested in individual factors like personality, interests, and dispositions.
Lack of intrinsic intellectual interest, convenience/cherry-picking of EA ideas, being more impressionable/less independent, and different thresholds of obligation are some key factors that may repel students from EA.
The degree to which someone is naturally “rational” and their preconceived notions of altruism can also impact their engagement with EA ideas.
The author emphasizes the importance of understanding, humility, and avoiding blame when considering EA attrition, acknowledging the complexity of factors involved in continued participation.
School culture and self-selection effects may also influence the likelihood of students being drawn to or repelled from EA.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The author presents a working model of factors that attract or repel university students from Effective Altruism (EA) based on their experience as a co-organizer of an EA student group, aiming to provide insights for community builders to optimize their efforts.
Key points:
The author noticed significant attrition in their EA student group membership, prompting them to develop a mental model to understand the factors contributing to this trend.
Overarching factors like economic incentives and self-interest play a role in attrition, but the author is more interested in individual factors like personality, interests, and dispositions.
Lack of intrinsic intellectual interest, convenience/cherry-picking of EA ideas, being more impressionable/less independent, and different thresholds of obligation are some key factors that may repel students from EA.
The degree to which someone is naturally “rational” and their preconceived notions of altruism can also impact their engagement with EA ideas.
The author emphasizes the importance of understanding, humility, and avoiding blame when considering EA attrition, acknowledging the complexity of factors involved in continued participation.
School culture and self-selection effects may also influence the likelihood of students being drawn to or repelled from EA.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.