Cause prioritization

Governments and philanthropists spend considerable resources attempting to do good in the world. How those resources are used, however, can make an even bigger difference than how many resources are available. Some work has been done on prioritizing within areas, but the question of how to prioritize between areas — areas—which is arguably more important^[1] —has received limited attention. 

Cause prioritization refers to efforts to find the most important causespressing problems to work on and compare interventions across different cause areas,areas so that we can do as much good as possible with the resources available to us. This tag is for posts relevant to cause prioritization.

Governments and philanthropists spend considerable resources attempting to do good in the world. How those resources are used, however, can make an even bigger difference than how many resources are available. Some work has been done on prioritizing within areas, but the even more important question onof how to prioritize between areas — which is arguably more important^[1] — has received remarkably limited attention. The effective altruism community, given its emphasis on cause neutrality, is especially interested in answering the latter question.

Cause-neutral prioritization research seeks to identify new promising focus areas, and to compare their relative value (by considering, for instance, whether(for instance by considering factors like animal welfare is a higher priority than existential risk). Given its very high importance andscope, neglectedness, and moderate tractability (see ITN framework), cause of the problems). 

Cause prioritization research (or global priorities research) is itself often regarded as a highly promising research area.area of work.^[1]2]

1. ^{^}

   Todd, Benjamin (2013) Why pick a cause?80,000 Hours website, December 10.

2. ^{^}

   Stafforini, Pablo (2014) Paul Christiano on cause prioritization research, Effective Altruism Forum, March 23.

Cause prioritization refers to efforts to find the most important causes to work on and compare interventions across different cause areas, so that we can do as much good as possible with the resources available to us. This tag is for posts relevant to cause prioritization.

Further detail

Cause-neutral prioritization research seeks to identify new promising focus areas, and to compare their relative value (by considering, for instance, whether animal welfare is a higher priority than existential risk). Given its very high importance and neglectedness, and moderate tractability,tractability (see ITN framework), cause prioritization research is itself often regarded as a highly promising research area (Stafforini 2014).area.^[1]

80,000 Hours (2016) Global priorities research, April.80,000 Hours, April (updated July 2018).

Grace, Katja (2014) Conversation with Paul Christiano on cause prioritization research, 80,000 Hours, August 20.

Related entries

Cause X | cost-effectiveness | distribution of cost-effectiveness | global priorities research | impact assessment | intervention evaluation | ITN framework

1. ^{^}

   Stafforini, Pablo (2014) Conversation with Paul Christiano on cause prioritization research, Effective Altruism Forum, March 23.

   Related entries

   global priorities research.

Cause prioritization refers to efforts to find the most important causes to work on and compare interventions across different cause areas, so that we can do as much good as possible with the resources available to us. This tag is for posts relevant to cause prioritization.

Further detail

Cause-neutral prioritization research seeks to identify new promising focus areas, and to compare their relative value (by considering, for instance, whether animal welfare is a higher priority than existential risk). Given its very high importance and neglectedness, and moderate tractability (see ITN framework),tractability, cause prioritization research is itself often regarded as a highly promising research area.^[1]area (Stafforini 2014).

80,000 Hours (2016) Global priorities research, 80,000 Hours, April (updated July 2018).April.

Grace, KatjaStafforini, Pablo (2014) Conversation with Paul Christiano on cause prioritization research, 80,000 Hours, August 20.

Related entries

Cause X | cost-effectiveness | distribution of cost-effectiveness | global priorities research | impact assessment | intervention evaluation | ITN framework

1. ^{^}

   Stafforini, Pablo (2014) Paul Christiano on cause prioritization, Effective Altruism Forum, March 23. 

Related entries

global priorities research.

Cause prioritization refers to efforts to find the most important causes to work on and compare interventions across different cause areas, so that we can do as much good as possible with the resources available to us.

Cause X | cost-effectiveness | distribution of cost-effectiveness | global priorities research | impact assessment | intervention evaluation | ITN framework

80,000 Hours (2016) Global priorities research, 80,000 Hours, April (updated July 2018).

cost-effectiveness | distribution of cost-effectiveness | global priorities research | impact assessment | intervention evaluation | ITN framework

Cause-neutral prioritization research seeks to identify new promising focus areas, and to compare their relative value (by considering, for instance, whether animal welfare is a higher priority than existential risk). Given its very high importance and neglectedness, and moderate tractability (see ITN framework), cause prioritization research is itself often regarded as a highly promising research area.^[1][1]

Stafforini, Pablo (2014) Paul Christiano on cause prioritization, Effective Altruism Forum, March 23. ↩︎

Cause-neutral prioritization research seeks to identify new promising focus areas, and to compare their relative value (by considering, for instance, whether animal welfare is a higher priority than existential risk). Given its very high importance and neglectedness, and moderate tractability (see ITN framework), cause prioritization research is itself often regarded as a highly promising research area.^[1][1]