Iâm one of the Community Liaisons for the EA community (alongside Julia Wise and Charlotte Darnell).
Iâm a contact for community health support for EA groups, and I also works on assessing and mitigating risks to the EA community.
I initially studied a lot of physics, then was a high school teacher for 11 years before moving full time into EA community building. I ran local and national EA groups and worked on EA outreach projects, before joining CEAâs Groups Team in early 2020 to support EA groups worldwide. I started working for the Community Health team mid 2021.
Catherine Lowđ¸
Karma: 4,328
Thanks for this lovely post. I have SO many reasons to love effective altruism, hereâs one (maybe Iâll write more later):
TruthseekingnessIâve been seeking out truthseeking communities all my life, but they all fell short of my goals until I found EA. Some examples:
I studied particle physicsâwhat could be more truthseeky than trying to find the fundamental nature of the universe? Back then, a bunch of particle physicists claimed to believe in a class of theories called âsupersymmetryââand I never understood whyâthere was no evidence for it, and I never really grokked why people thought the theoretical arguments were so compelling. At the time I just thought I wasnât intelligent or knowledgeable enough to get it, but I might have undersold myself. The Large Hadron Collider has since ruled out all the then most popular versions of supersymmetry, and it isnât cool any more. I think there might have been some sort of shared delusion because people wanted it to be true, partly because it was testable by the particle accelerator that was under construction.
When I was a science teacher it used to drive me BONKERS that students were taught (and required to regurgitate in national exams) incorrect force diagrams. (E.g. for a car accelerating on a flat, level road, students were required to draw the âfrictionâ arrow pointing backwardsâwhereas in reality, friction is forward and without it the wheels would just spin and the car wouldnât go anywhere). I get the need for simplification as much as the next guy, but you canât tell me that âpoint the arrow in the exact opposite directionâ counts as simplification. I talked to a bunch of teachers, the national qualifications authority, the ministry of education, and created draft alternative (and equally simple) resources for them to review. But no one else seemed to care at all about whether what we were teaching was accurateâor at least didnât care enough to do anything about it.
But EA seems to be very differentâthis community seems to be unusually good at seeking the truth, even (or especially?) when it is inconvenient, scary, or even shameful. One of the first EA talks I went to blew my mind by questioning whether we are currently wasting our donations, by doing and then undoing good. Then I read GiveWellâs noodling on whether or not some of their (then) top charities are likely to have no impact, and discussions on whether becoming vegetarian increases animal suffering. More recently Iâve seen commentary about whether our community has accelerated dangerous AI capabilities or whether our community contributed to an environment that led to multi-billion dollar fraud. We should take these possible negatives very seriously. The fact that we do take these negatives seriously, and that we continue to try to get better a truth seeking gives me a whole bunch of hope.
I havenât personally heard any instances of this, but itâs certainly possible :(
Hi all -
This post has now been edited, but we would like to address some of the original claims, since many people have read them. In particular, the author claims:
They have identified 30 incidents of rape or abuse with strong ties to EA, as well as 14 that are âEA adjacentâ
They have been fighting assault in EA since 2016
Here is some context:
The author emailed the Community Health team about 7 months ago, when she shared some information about interpersonal harm; someone else previously forwarded us some anonymous information that she may have compiled. Before about 7 months ago, we hadnât been in contact with her.
The information from her included serious concerns about various people in the Bay Area, most of whom had no connection to EA as far as we know. 4 of the accused seemed to be possibly or formerly involved with EA. CEA will not allow those 4 people at our events (though for context most of them havenât applied). As weâve said before, weâre grateful to her for this information.
In addition, she later sent us some information that we had also previously received from other sources and we were already taking action on. We appreciate people sharing information even when it turns out we already have it, but it is relevant for clarifying the degree to which she is counterfactually responsible for our actions.
Based on our records, this is the extent of the relevant information she has shared with us.
She referred to some other situations both on the Forum and privately, which did not contain enough information for us to identify the situation or learn more.
We have emailed the author to tell her we will not be contracting her services.
We donât think itâs productive to go into more depth about the authorâs specific claims or engage in a back and forth with her, but we wanted to publicly flag that we disagree with many of her claims.
If you have concerns about our approach here, our reasoning etc., please let us know. Please reach out to me by email (catherine@centreforeffectivealtruism.org) or fill in this form (anonymously if you wish) to reach the whole Community Health team. You can read more about Julia Wise and my roles as contact people for the EA community here.
Thanks Keerthana. Iâm afraid I donât know anything about CFARâs processes. It might be worth you reaching out to CFAR directly: contact@rationality.org.
I look forward to reading your
> women-friendly culture updates a movement can take
If and when you choose to share.
Thanks for all the suggestions and comments on this post! I have read them and will respond.
I know some commenters have been trying to square the uncertainty I express in this post with the allegations in TIME. Iâve added a new comment where Iâve shared the Community Health teamâs understanding about most (not all) of the cases:
Hey Aella, I appreciate you telling your story. Iâm really sorry that youâve experienced people lying about you, and making harmful assumptions about your intent . That really really sucks.
Iâve put more information about most (not all) of the Community Health teamâs understanding of the TIME cases in this comment:
https://ââforum.effectivealtruism.org/ââposts/ââJCyX29F77Jak5gbwq/ââea-sexual-harassment-and-abuse?commentId=jKJ4kLq8e6RZtTe2P
It might clarify some of your questions about individual cases.
We (the Community Health team at CEA) would like to share some more information about the cases in the TIME article, and our previous knowledge of these cases. Weâve put these comments in the approximate order that they appear in the TIME article.
Re: Gopalakrishnanâs experiences
We read her post with concern. We saw quite a few supportive messages from community members, and we also tried to offer support. Our team also reached out to Gopalakrishnan in a direct message to ask if she was interested in sharing more information with us about the specific incidents.
Re: The man who
Expressed opinions about âpedophilic relationshipsâ
âAnother woman, who dated the same man several years earlier in a polyamorous relationship, alleges that he had once attempted to put his penis in her mouth while she was sleeping.â
We donât know this personâs identity for sure, but one of these accounts resembles a previous public accusation made against a person who used to be involved in the rationality community. He has been banned from CEA events for almost 5 years, and we understand he has been banned from some other EA spaces. He has been a critic of the EA movement for some time.
We were aware of the second allegation and were in contact with the woman. We did not know about the first allegation until recently.
Re: Masturbation comment
Time magazine described it as âAfter that leader arranged for her to be flown to the U.K. for a job interview, she recalls being surprised to discover that she was expected to stay in his home, not a hotel. When she arrived, she says, âhe told me he needed to masturbate before seeing me.ââ
We know lots of people are particularly concerned about this, which makes sense. Our understanding is that more information will be forthcoming, and we hope to be able to say more about it next week.
Re: Rochelle Shen âsays she has firsthand experience of the ways the movement dismisses allegations. âThey want to keep it all in the family.ââ
As far as we know, we hadnât interacted with Shen at the time this was written. We donât have a complete picture of how others in the community have handled allegations that have come to them. In general, the community health team encourages people to consider all their options for handling a problem, including getting legal advice if they think a crime may have happened.
Re: The Bay Area House
The TIME article describes the house as âroughly a third of the residents were EAs, and the house regularly hosted EA events.â We were aware of the existence of this house after some concerns were raised about a year ago. We werenât aware of EA events hosted in the house, but it is common for people in the EA community to invite other community members around to their houses.
Re: âmale co-leader of the house was accused of sexual misconduct by an ex-girlfriend who says she met him at an EA conferenceâ
Community Health became aware of concerns about this person about a year ago. He had been to an EA Global conference around 5 years ago, and we decided not to admit him to any future CEA-run events. We reached out to the accuser asking if we could help.
Re: âthe other residents of the house started a Google Doc to collectively discuss how to handle them.â
Community Health was not aware of this document or the process in the house generally.
Re: âan EA living in the house suggested bringing in a mediator named Aurora Quinn-Elmoreâ
Community Health has not referred people to Quinn-Elmore. She last attended an EA conference around 5 years ago.
Re: âa much older EA recruited her to join his polyamorous relationship while she was still in collegeâ
To our knowledge, we donât know about this specific situation
Re: Man who âasked how old she was, she recalls, then quickly suggested she join his polyamorous relationship. Shortly after agreeing to date him, âHe told me that âI could sleep with you on Monday,â but on Tuesday Iâm with this other girl,âTo our knowledge, we donât know about this specific situation.
Re: other concerns raised in the comments section
A commenter wrote that they had heard some very serious allegations. They later removed their own comments about this.
We were aware of one of these situations and had already taken action to ban the accused from CEA events (although the accused doesnât seem to have been involved with the EA community in some time).
Some of the other situations this commenter referred to were not ones we had heard about, and did not contain enough information for us to identify the situation or learn more. We have asked the commenter for more information. If anyone has specific information about these or other problems in the community, our door is very much open.
âŚâŚ.
If you have more information about these cases, or other situations of harassment or abuse in the EA community, we would really like to help.
Please reach out to me by email (catherine@centreforeffectivealtruism.org) or fill in this form (anonymously if you wish) to reach the whole Community Health team. You can read more about Julia Wise and my roles as contact people for the EA community here.
If the situation may have involved a crime, you may wish to reach out to
Legal help. Many countries have free hotlines that can help people navigate the legal and justice systems (e.g. sexual violence hotline in US, resources for crime victims in the US, this list of legal hotlines in the UK)
The police
If the situation involves mental health issues, you may wish to seek professional help
- 's comment on PeoÂple Will SomeÂtimes Just Lie About You by (Feb 18, 2023, 12:49 PM; 100 points)
- 's comment on Abuse in LessWrong and raÂtioÂnalÂist comÂmuÂniÂties in Bloomberg News by (Mar 8, 2023, 1:04 AM; 45 points)
- 's comment on A stateÂment and an apology by (Feb 22, 2023, 9:54 PM; 26 points)
- 's comment on Plans for inÂvesÂtiÂgatÂing and imÂprovÂing the exÂpeÂrience of women, non-biÂnary and trans peoÂple in EA by (Feb 18, 2023, 2:09 PM; 20 points)
- 's comment on Abuse in LessWrong and raÂtioÂnalÂist comÂmuÂniÂties in Bloomberg News by (Mar 8, 2023, 4:55 PM; 3 points)
Thanks Lorenzo!
I have no idea. I couldnât work out how to list it as âCommunity â. Iâm guessing the mods havenât categorised it yet.
Plans for inÂvesÂtiÂgatÂing and imÂprovÂing the exÂpeÂrience of women, non-biÂnary and trans peoÂple in EA
This sounds really horrifying Maddie. Iâm so so sorry you (and other victims) have had to go through this. Iâll send you a direct message to work out if and how I might be able to help you and prevent future harm from this person.
(BTW Iâm Catherine from CEAâs Community Health team).
Iâve loved being a participant in several of JohnWâs Wits and Wagers events, and have run it a couple of times myself since. It is my favourite evening retreat activity. Better than karaoke IMO!
Happy Pineapple user here!
I found myself in pressing need of an assistant, and was particularly wanting to hire someone with context about the EA community. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of talented people that had signed up to Pineappleâs list (including several people I had worked with through my former role doing Group Support with CEA). My colleague and I looked through the details of all the available people, and sent a short trial task to several people on the list. We then gave one person a (paid) work trial, and then hired them. The process took much less time than running an open hiring round and Iâm incredibly happy with how it is going with this hire, so using Pineapple worked out brilliantly for me.
Have worÂries about EA? Want to chat?
Oh wow! This is fantastic news. Both because heâll have influence on the $29.4 billion :O!, and that his appointment might reflect a bigger change in USAID policy in general.
Ooh, that is a good one!
Oh, how could I have forgotten the onion test! Iâll add that in. Thanks
QuesÂtions I ask myÂself when makÂing deÂciÂsions (or comÂmuÂniÂcatÂing)
Iâm glad that FLI put this FAQ out, but Iâm nervous that several commenters are swinging from one opinion (boo, FLI) to the opposite (FLI is fine! Folks who condemned FLI were too hasty!) too quickly.
This FAQ only slightly changed my opinion on FLIâs grantmaking process. My best guess is that something went very wrong with this particular grant process. My reasoning:
Iâd be surprised if FLIâs due diligence step is intended to be a substantial part of the assessment process. My guess it that due diligence might usually be more about formalities like answeringâcan we legally pay this person? Is the person is who they say they are? And notâIs this a good grant to make?
It seems like FLI would be creating a huge hassle if they regularly sent out âintention to issue a grantâ to prospective grantees (with the $ amount especially), only to withdraw support later. It would be harmful for the prospective grantees by giving them false hopes (could cause them to change their plans thinking the money is coming), and annoying for the grant maker because I suspect theyâd be asked to explain why they changed their mind.
If indeed FLI does regularly reject grants at due diligence stage, that would update me towards thinking nothing went too badly with this particular grant (and Iâd like to know their reasons for doing that as Iâm probably missing something).
NoteâIâm speaking for myself not CEA (where I work).
Thanks Ivy and Jason for your thoughts on internal and external investigations of problems of sexual misconduct in EA.
There are a few different investigation type things going on at the moment, and some of them arenât fully scoped or planned. So it is a bit confusing. To clarify, this is where we are at right now:
Catherine, Anu and Lukasz from the Community Health team are investigating the experiences of women and gender minorities in EA.
Analysing existing data sources (in progressâRethink Priorities has kindly given us some (as yet) unpublished data from the 2022 Survey to help with this step)
We are considering gathering and analysing more data about the experiences of women and gender minorities in EA, and have talked with Rethink Priorities about whether and how they could help. Nothing has been decided yet. To clarify a statement in Ivyâs comment though, weâre not planning to hand over any information we have (e.g. survey data from EAG(x)s or information about sexual misconduct cases raised to our team) to Rethink Priorities as part of this process.
The EV board has commissioned an external investigation by an independent law firm into Owenâs behaviour and the Community Health teamâs response.
The Community Health team are doing our own internal review into our handling of the complaints about Owen and our overall processes for dealing with complaints and concerns. More information about this here.