I don’t have much time to engage on this, but here are some quick replies:
I don’t know anything about your interactions with GiveWell. My comment about ignoring vs. not-ignoring arguments about happiness interventions was about me / Open Phil, since I looked into the literature in 2015 and have read various things by you since then. I wouldn’t say I ignored those posts and arguments, I just had different views than you about likely cost-effectiveness etc.
On “weakly validated measures,” I’m talking in part about lack of IRT validation studies for SWB measures used in adults (NIH funded such studies for SWB measures in kids but not adults, IIRC), but also about other things. The published conversation notes only discuss a small fraction of my findings/thoughts on the topic.
On “unconvincing intervention studies” I mean interventions from the SWB literature, e.g. gratitude journals and the like. Personally, I’m more optimistic about health and anti-poverty interventions for the purpose of improving happiness.
On “wrong statistical test,” I’m referring to the section called “Older studies used inappropriate statistical methods” in the linked conversation notes with Joel Hektner.
TBC, I think happiness research is worth engaging and has things to teach us, and I think there may be some cost-effectiveness happiness interventions out there. As I said in my original comment, I moved on to other topics not because I think the field is hopeless, but because it was in a bad enough state that it didn’t make sense for me to prioritize it at the time.
Thanks for this too. I appreciate you’ve since moved on to other things, so this isn’t really your topic to engage on anymore. However, I’ll make two comments.
First, you said you read various things in the area, including by me, since 2015. It would have been really helpful (to me) if, given you had different views, you had engaged at the time and set out where you disagreed and what sort of evidence would have changed your mind.
Second, and similarly, I would really appreciate it if the current team at Open Philanthropy could more precisely set out their perspective on all this. I did have a few interactions with various Open Phil staff in 2021, but I wouldn’t say I’ve got anything like canonical answers on what their reservations are about 1. measuring outcomes in terms of SWB - Alex Berger’s recent technical update didn’t comment on this—and 2. doing more research or grantmaking into the things that, from the SWB perspective, seem overlooked.
This is an interesting conversation. It’s veering off into a separate topic. I wish there was a way to “rebase” these spin-off discussions into a different place. For better organisation.
Hi Michael,
I don’t have much time to engage on this, but here are some quick replies:
I don’t know anything about your interactions with GiveWell. My comment about ignoring vs. not-ignoring arguments about happiness interventions was about me / Open Phil, since I looked into the literature in 2015 and have read various things by you since then. I wouldn’t say I ignored those posts and arguments, I just had different views than you about likely cost-effectiveness etc.
On “weakly validated measures,” I’m talking in part about lack of IRT validation studies for SWB measures used in adults (NIH funded such studies for SWB measures in kids but not adults, IIRC), but also about other things. The published conversation notes only discuss a small fraction of my findings/thoughts on the topic.
On “unconvincing intervention studies” I mean interventions from the SWB literature, e.g. gratitude journals and the like. Personally, I’m more optimistic about health and anti-poverty interventions for the purpose of improving happiness.
On “wrong statistical test,” I’m referring to the section called “Older studies used inappropriate statistical methods” in the linked conversation notes with Joel Hektner.
TBC, I think happiness research is worth engaging and has things to teach us, and I think there may be some cost-effectiveness happiness interventions out there. As I said in my original comment, I moved on to other topics not because I think the field is hopeless, but because it was in a bad enough state that it didn’t make sense for me to prioritize it at the time.
Hello Luke,
Thanks for this too. I appreciate you’ve since moved on to other things, so this isn’t really your topic to engage on anymore. However, I’ll make two comments.
First, you said you read various things in the area, including by me, since 2015. It would have been really helpful (to me) if, given you had different views, you had engaged at the time and set out where you disagreed and what sort of evidence would have changed your mind.
Second, and similarly, I would really appreciate it if the current team at Open Philanthropy could more precisely set out their perspective on all this. I did have a few interactions with various Open Phil staff in 2021, but I wouldn’t say I’ve got anything like canonical answers on what their reservations are about 1. measuring outcomes in terms of SWB - Alex Berger’s recent technical update didn’t comment on this—and 2. doing more research or grantmaking into the things that, from the SWB perspective, seem overlooked.
This is an interesting conversation. It’s veering off into a separate topic. I wish there was a way to “rebase” these spin-off discussions into a different place. For better organisation.