Note: I don’t know very much about mental health, and the first two paragraphs of this comment are highly speculative.
That would be my theory, though I might not use the word “sensitive”. I’d think that part of the effect (probably most of it) has something to do with lower average happiness and/or higher rates of depression/anxiety among people who prioritize mental health.
I’d guess that people who strongly support that cause are more likely to have direct experience with mental health issues than other people in EA. Having a lower level of happiness/life satisfaction could then translate into generally lower “scores” on surveys asking about many different positive feelings, including “how welcome you feel”.
Of course, mental health isn’t a very well-supported cause area within EA, so it could also be the case that people who favor it have a hard time finding other people in EA who share their level of support. It’s probably much easier to find someone who knows a lot about animal advocacy at an EA event than to find someone who knows a lot about mental health as a cause area, and 1-on-1 conversations are a big driver of “feeling welcome”.
(Anecdotally, experiencing intermittent mild-to-moderate depression over the last few years seems to have made me more likely to read about EA work in mental health. Empathy tends to influence the causes to which I am emotionally drawn, inside or outside of EA.)
Note: I don’t know very much about mental health, and the first two paragraphs of this comment are highly speculative.
That would be my theory, though I might not use the word “sensitive”. I’d think that part of the effect (probably most of it) has something to do with lower average happiness and/or higher rates of depression/anxiety among people who prioritize mental health.
I’d guess that people who strongly support that cause are more likely to have direct experience with mental health issues than other people in EA. Having a lower level of happiness/life satisfaction could then translate into generally lower “scores” on surveys asking about many different positive feelings, including “how welcome you feel”.
Of course, mental health isn’t a very well-supported cause area within EA, so it could also be the case that people who favor it have a hard time finding other people in EA who share their level of support. It’s probably much easier to find someone who knows a lot about animal advocacy at an EA event than to find someone who knows a lot about mental health as a cause area, and 1-on-1 conversations are a big driver of “feeling welcome”.
(Anecdotally, experiencing intermittent mild-to-moderate depression over the last few years seems to have made me more likely to read about EA work in mental health. Empathy tends to influence the causes to which I am emotionally drawn, inside or outside of EA.)