- Jul 2023
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forum.effectivealtruism.org forum.effectivealtruism.org
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We are now planning a further update in response to additional comments (e.g., from James Snowden and GiveWell). We expect this will include updating our analysis with recently completed studies and refining some technical aspects of the analysis, including:Our systematic review, and the weight we place on different sources of evidenceEstimated spillover benefits for household membersCost estimatesTechnical details, such as:How long do the effects of psychotherapy last?How important is the expertise of the deliverer or number of sessions?Are the effects of psychotherapy affected by publication bias?
This seems extremely high-value and potentially ideal for the Unjournal's non-academic stream. Ryan 'had this in mind too'
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We’ve published two working papers on moral uncertainty: The property rights approach to moral uncertainty and Wheeling and dealing: An internal bargaining approach to moral uncertainty, which both explore a novel, bargaining-based approach to acting when you’re uncertain what’s morally right. (This is very roughly akin to the ‘moral parliament’ approach.) We’re currently working with two external co-authors on a new paper that combines these ideas, which we plan to publish in an academic journal.
Potential relevant to #unjournalresearchprioritization, depending on the approach
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5.1 Using WELLBYs to compare the value of extending lives against improving lives
Somewhat relevant to #unjournalresearchprioritization
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Our working paper A Happy Possibility about Happiness (and other) Scales, a working paper attempts to provide the first overview of both the theory and evidence of the comparability of subjective wellbeing scales (e.g., is your 7/10 the same as my 7/10?). We plan to revise this for publication in an academic journal.
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Our article To WELLBY or not to WELLBY? sets out the WELLBY method, its strengths, weaknesses, and areas for future work. To expand on this, we are:
This seems very relevant for Unjournal
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1.2 Child development effects (e.g., abuse, trauma, nutrition)
I suspect some strong Unjournal/academic research links here. Also to the house improvement ones and possibly the fistula ones too.
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that may have large impacts on wellbeing as well. So far we have completed shallow reviews on pain, lead exposure, and immigration.
For unjournal research prioritization, I guess I will have to dig into those reviews to identify the most pivotal research to have evaluated?
These link articles but don't contain a 'list of works cited' at bottom. Could you provide that ... even better an 'annotated/categorized/prioritized list' explaining which ones you rely on most heavily, and which you have the most uncertainty over?
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Research agenda
In the previous agenda you tried
to articulate, within each research area, where additional research seems more (or less) useful, and therefore what our research agenda is for the next one to two years.
This seemed particularly relevant to helping the Unjournal help you. Not sure this new agenda does this as much.
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A working paper exploring a bargaining-based approach to moral uncertainty
How are you defining and considering a 'working paper' here?
"Units of value" .. maybe add a few more words to clarify this?
I assume this will be a theoretical paper (i.e., no surveys or data?)
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A revised paper on the theory and current evidence on scale cardinality (e.g., is your 7/10 the same as my 7/10?)
I see a lot of benefit in engaging with academics on this paper, and getting and responding to feedback, possibly within The Unjournal's framework
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We will conduct new research on how to measure and interpret subjective wellbeing measures:
A 2021 priority was "Examining how best to convert between different SWB, as well as other, measures (1.2.1)" This seems to have strong academic links relevant to the Unjournal. Is it still a priority?
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2. Organisation evaluations
I expect Unjournal-evaluated research to provide inputs relevant to these evaluations, but not to directly evaluate particular organisations. However, we might be able to cover some of this within our 'less academic stream'.
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Non-mood-related mental health issues (e.g., psychotic and trauma-related disorders)Child development effects (e.g., abuse, trauma, nutrition)Fistula repair surgeryBasic housing improvements (e.g., concrete floors)
I suspect there are a range of academic papers (in development economics, health economics, psychology, policy, and the social-sciency side of biomedicine) that will inform this, that Unjournal might evaluate.
This can include work that constitutes - impact evaluation of specific interventions, including RCTs non-experimental causal inference - work exploring the impact of specific paths to impact through these interventions (e.g., the career costs of childhood trauma) - work exploring costs and impacts on the market (e.g., impact of housing improvements on the local economy, price elasticities, etc.)
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1. Cause area explorations
In the 2021 agenda you stated "Our main current focus, and where the majority of our eΛort will go, is Area 2.3: using subjective well-being scores to compare the cost-effectiveness of highly-regarded health and development interventions used in low-income countries."
Is this still your priority? Is this in line with the 'Cause area explorations" category here?
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Conduct further theoretical work:
The boundary between theoretical and applied is not always clear here. Some research, maybe the methodological and measurement research in particular, has both theoretical aspects and very applicable and even empirical aspects. Calling this 'theoretical' might confuse people who would conflate theoretical with philosophical. E.g., research into which survey and other reporting instruments are more reliable, better reflect the actual measures of interest ... this seems very applied to me, and probably relevant to The Unjournal's scope as well.
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asurement of wellbeing. This has included evaluating philosophical views of wellbeing and life satisfaction, pioneering methods to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses using wellbeing, and conducting novel research on wellbeing measurement. We
I think you may have moved a lot of the content outlined in the previous Research Agenda into those linked reports?
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