Information-generating research projects

JonahS

The research projects that I'm interested in here are projects that:

Involve aggregating and analyzing information
Don't require experiments (e.g. not biomedical research)
Can be done by people who aren't subject matter experts.
Lead to publicly accessible information (not proprietary research in finance)

Some examples:

GiveWell has generated information relevant to finding outstanding giving opportunities. The value of this information extends beyond giving opportunities: for example, GiveWell's investigation of biomedical research as a philanthropic cause is relevant to those considering a career in the field.
80,000 Hours has been doing interviews, collecting salary information, and doing cost-effectiveness analyses to help inform people's career choices.
MIRI has been generating information on the historical record of predictions of the medium term future, the historical record of efforts to influence the medium term future, the state of the artificial intelligence field, and more.

What are some other examples of topics for which research of this type could have high impact?

Note: I formerly worked as a research analyst at GiveWell and have done contract work for 80000 Hours and MIRI.

The research projects that I'm interested in here are projects that:

Involve aggregating and analyzing information
Don't require experiments (e.g. not biomedical research)
Can be done by people who aren't subject matter experts.
Lead to publicly accessible information (not proprietary research in finance)

Some examples:

GiveWell has generated information relevant to finding outstanding giving opportunities. The value of this information extends beyond giving opportunities: for example, GiveWell's investigation of biomedical research as a philanthropic cause is relevant to those considering a career in the field.
80,000 Hours has been doing interviews, collecting salary information, and doing cost-effectiveness analyses to help inform people's career choices.
MIRI has been generating information on the historical record of predictions of the medium term future, the historical record of efforts to influence the medium term future, the state of the artificial intelligence field, and more.

What are some other examples of topics for which research of this type could have high impact?

Note: I formerly worked as a research analyst at GiveWell and have done contract work for 80000 Hours and MIRI.

Thanks! Can you give some examples of what you have in mind? There are already some efforts like FactCheck.org. Are there specific areas where you see room for improvement?

Thanks I didn't know of Factcheck though I know newspapers sometimes do similar things.

I think that partly due to the existence of factcheckers, and partly because it's so easy to check for yourself whether a certain statement of fact is true, it is far less common that politicians make false statements of fact than that they fool the voters in other ways. For instance, a typical political debate consists of one logical fallacy after the other - strawmen, guilt by association, invalid ad hominems etc. I think that it would not be too hard to provide the v... (read more)

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Information-generating research projects

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Information-generating research projects

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