What qualifies one as an effective altruist for the purposes of this survey? Is it "self-identifies as an effective altruist"?
Yes, the second question is:
Could you, however loosely, be described as 'an EA'? Answer no if you are not familiar with the term 'EA', which stands for 'Effective Altruist'. This question is not asking if you are altruistic and value effectiveness, but rather whether you loosely identify with the existing 'EA' identity.
This phrase strongly suggests that the EA community needs to more clearly describe what it is they mean when they use the terms "altruism" and "effective altruism" (as I've commented before).
What would you suggest? I take 'altruistic' to generally mean 'acts partly for the good of others, and is willing to make sacrifices for this end'. There's then a decent behavioural test for whether people were altruistic beforehand. There's no clear definition of being EA, besides accepting some sufficient number of EA ideas.
This question is not asking if you are altruistic and value effectiveness, but rather whether you loosely identify with the existing 'EA' identity.
I judge this to be a problematic criterion. See this comment, esp. starting with "To put this another way ...", for why I think so.
What would you suggest? I take 'altruistic' to generally mean 'acts partly for the good of others, and is willing to make sacrifices for this end'.
That does seem like a reasonable definition, but in that form it seems rather too vague to be useful for the purposes of...
I'm pleased to announce the first annual survey of effective altruists. This is a short survey of around 40 questions (generally multiple choice), which several collaborators and I have put a great deal of work into and would be very grateful if you took. I'll offer $250 of my own money to one participant.
Take the survey at http://survey.effectivealtruismhub.com/
The survey should yield some interesting results such as EAs' political and religious views, what actions they take, and the causes they favour and donate to. It will also enable useful applications which will be launched immediately afterwards, such as a map of EAs with contact details and a cause-neutral register of planned donations or pledges which can be verified each year. I'll also provide an open platform for followup surveys and other actions people can take. If you'd like to suggest questions, email me or comment.
Anonymised results will be shared publicly and not belong to any individual or organisation. The most robust privacy practices will be followed, with clear opt-ins and opt-outs.
I'd like to thank Jacy Anthis, Ben Landau-Taylor, David Moss and Peter Hurford for their help.
Other surveys' results, and predictions for this one
Other surveys have had intriguing results. For example, Joey Savoie and Xio Kikauka's interviewed 42 often highly active EAs over Skype, and found that they generally had left-leaning parents, donated on average 10%, and were altruistic before becoming EAs. The time they spent on EA activities was correlated with the percentage they donated (0.4), the time their parents spend volunteering (0.3), and the percentage of their friends who were EAs (0.3).
80,000 Hours also released a questionnaire and, while this was mainly focused on their impact, it yielded a list of which careers people plan to pursue: 16% for academia, 9% for both finance and software engineering, and 8% for both medicine and non-profits.
I'd be curious to hear people's predictions as to what the results of this survey will be. You might enjoy reading or sharing them here. For my part, I'd imagine we have few conservatives or even libertarians, are over 70% male, and have directed most of our donations to poverty charities.