Effective altruism is about prioritising our efforts when doing good, so we can help others as much as we can.
In 2012, the term "effective altruism" was coined by team members of Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours when they founded the Centre for Effective Altruism. They were looking for a phrase that described the pursuit of finding better ways to help others and taking action on that basis.
Effective altruism has two parts:
Some examples of effective altruism include:
Below we further unpack what effective altruism means and how it has been applied.
First and foremost, effective altruism starts by asking how we can be more effective in our pursuit of doing good. This might be phrased as:
Such questions are important to both ask and try to answer, because we live in a world of limited resources and we care about others. We want to make the world a better place, but we need to be effective in our actions in order to have the most impact.
At its core, effective altruism research investigates how we can best use our resources to improve the world. But given this is such a large question, there are many narrower kinds of questions researchers in effective altruism work on, such as:
The above list only captures some of the questions often asked as part of effective altruism research, and even in this short list it's clear there are many disparate and difficult problems to work on. What unifies them, though, is that they each aim to provide insights that can help people in the real world do good better.
The effective altruism community is a growing and diverse group of people who share a commitment to using reason and evidence to figure out how to help others as effectively as possible, and taking action on that basis. The community includes people from all over the world, with a wide range of backgrounds and views. What unites effective altruists is a shared commitment to finding out how to help others as effectively as possible, and then taking action on that basis.
People in the effective altruism community try to improve the world in many different ways, such as:
The effective altruism community is diverse, with many groups working on how to best help those alive today, protect future generations of humans, improve animal welfare, or grow the effective altruism movement itself. Each of these groups has made significant contributions to their respective causes since the effective altruism movement began.
Work in this area typically looks at how we can save and improve the lives of as many people as possible, regardless of where they live.
Community members work on interventions from direct aid programmes to influencing systemic change through policy at a governmental level.
Some examples of organisations in this area include:
Learn more about global health and development as a cause area.
People in the effective altruism community often recognise the immense suffering of nonhuman animals, from factory farming to wild animals.
Organisations aligned with effective altruism work on meat alternatives, factory farming policy, and research into animal welfare.
Some examples of organisations in this area include:
Learn more about improving animal welfare as a cause area.
Many people in the community believe that it is important that we safeguard the long-term future, to ensure that the people who exist in the future will also lead happy lives. The philosophy associated with believing that protecting future generations is a key moral priority of our time is called longtermism.
People and organisations interested in this area often work on projects to reduce existential risks, such as preventing pandemics, mitigating climate change, promoting beneficial AI, and reducing nuclear threats.
Some examples of organisations in this area include:
Learn more about safeguarding the long-term future as a cause area.
Effective altruism is a relatively small movement, so some people and organisations work on growing the community and reaching more people who might be interested in using their resources to do good.
Some examples of organisations in this area include:
Learn more about advocating for effective altruism as a cause area.
There are other areas that people in the community are interested in, such as criminal justice reform and scientific research. Most importantly, we expect that the focus of the community will change as new research is done and we find other effective ways to do good over time.
If you’re inspired by the ideas of effective altruism, there are many ways you can take action: