There are a lot of different audiences. Political decision-makers, the public at large, and academics are three.
Decision-makers in government are often (at least in the UK) very well intentioned and keen to use the right models and assumptions. But they are also very busy and have little time to do research and learn. We believe the best way to influence them is to engage with their work, understand what they are struggling with, and then produce really concise and useable frameworks for them. It’s really important to physically get paper copies into their offices. This is the approach we used while engaging with the National Risk Assessment, and one we will continue to use. For example, a contact in central government has suggested that, despite extensive academic work on the topic, decision-makers still do not really understand discount rates and could use a very clear ‘how-to’ note that can be passed around.
Influencing the public at large is going to take interaction with journalists and branding experts. It is a regrettable accident that the EA movement so far has been light on these skills—we hope that will change and are reaching out to journalists, marketing experts and PR workers (I spoke yesterday with a worker at a PR agency for academic public impact).
EAs may want to influence academics. Potential routes for this include doing impressive direct work (publishing, attending conferences etc.) to encourage others to build on the work. But an alternative strategy is to ‘pull side-ways’ (by offering prizes, hosting conferences, persuading top researchers etc.).
Another question: how can we get effective altruist research to reach an audience that’s larger than the social bubble of effective altruism?
There are a lot of different audiences. Political decision-makers, the public at large, and academics are three.
Decision-makers in government are often (at least in the UK) very well intentioned and keen to use the right models and assumptions. But they are also very busy and have little time to do research and learn. We believe the best way to influence them is to engage with their work, understand what they are struggling with, and then produce really concise and useable frameworks for them. It’s really important to physically get paper copies into their offices. This is the approach we used while engaging with the National Risk Assessment, and one we will continue to use. For example, a contact in central government has suggested that, despite extensive academic work on the topic, decision-makers still do not really understand discount rates and could use a very clear ‘how-to’ note that can be passed around.
Influencing the public at large is going to take interaction with journalists and branding experts. It is a regrettable accident that the EA movement so far has been light on these skills—we hope that will change and are reaching out to journalists, marketing experts and PR workers (I spoke yesterday with a worker at a PR agency for academic public impact).
EAs may want to influence academics. Potential routes for this include doing impressive direct work (publishing, attending conferences etc.) to encourage others to build on the work. But an alternative strategy is to ‘pull side-ways’ (by offering prizes, hosting conferences, persuading top researchers etc.).