I think this is one case where it’s useful to also look at the absolute numbers from each source across years rather than the percentages. (Usually the absolute totals risk being very misleading/confusing, because the total numbers of respondents from different surveys varies a lot, e.g. 2020 was a nadir, with just over 2000 respondents, whereas in 2022 we recruited over 3500).
The raw numbers show similar numbers from GiveWell across years, whereas GWWC’s raw totals do seem lower than their peak in earlier years. So it doesn’t seem to simply be the case that they’ve been outpaced by faster growth from 80K or others.
Also worth noting that the 2020 podcast jump was significantly contributed to from the Sam Harris episode taking the GWWC Company Pledge (which was also a significant shift in his advocacy moving forward). This involved a lot of work behind the scenes from our side but would be attributed here as “finding EA (and GWWC)” from the podcast.
Also in ~2017 GWWC chapters were converted to EA groups so that also explains some of the difference (GWWC chapters used to be a way that people found out about EA in-person which was largely supplanted by EA groups so that now people find out about GWWC in-person via EA groups).
Both really important points, Luke! I think the shift from GWWC Chapters to EA groups is not obvious to many people in the community and represents some of the wider shift we’ve seen!
I think this is one case where it’s useful to also look at the absolute numbers from each source across years rather than the percentages. (Usually the absolute totals risk being very misleading/confusing, because the total numbers of respondents from different surveys varies a lot, e.g. 2020 was a nadir, with just over 2000 respondents, whereas in 2022 we recruited over 3500).
The raw numbers show similar numbers from GiveWell across years, whereas GWWC’s raw totals do seem lower than their peak in earlier years. So it doesn’t seem to simply be the case that they’ve been outpaced by faster growth from 80K or others.
Also worth noting that the 2020 podcast jump was significantly contributed to from the Sam Harris episode taking the GWWC Company Pledge (which was also a significant shift in his advocacy moving forward). This involved a lot of work behind the scenes from our side but would be attributed here as “finding EA (and GWWC)” from the podcast.
Also in ~2017 GWWC chapters were converted to EA groups so that also explains some of the difference (GWWC chapters used to be a way that people found out about EA in-person which was largely supplanted by EA groups so that now people find out about GWWC in-person via EA groups).
Both really important points, Luke! I think the shift from GWWC Chapters to EA groups is not obvious to many people in the community and represents some of the wider shift we’ve seen!