Effective Altruism

Why prioritize?

With limited time and money, no one can realistically work on every problem. In a world home to billions of humans and trillions of other animals, there is no shortage of individuals in need of help. If we only care about the issues directly in front of us, we might overlook even more important problems.

Effective altruism (EA) is an ongoing project and global movement that uses evidence and reason to find the best ways to help others. A key idea is comparing problems to find which are most important, most neglected, and most tractable.

Definition

Cause area

A category of problems that people work on, like global health, animal welfare, or AI safety. Each cause area contains many more specific problems and potential solutions.

Definition

Cause prioritization

The practice of comparing different cause areas to work out where additional effort or resources would do more good than elsewhere.

People in the effective altruism movement work on a range of problems, including but not limited to the following.

Global Health & Development

Animal Welfare

AI Safety

Global catastrophic risk

Skip to key cause areas

How prioritization works

When making decisions about which broad cause areas or specific problems to prioritize, people in the effective altruism community often use a framework that considers three key factors.

Importance

I

How bad is the problem? This means weighing both the scale of a problem (how many are affected) and its severity (how much each is affected). A problem can rank highly on one and not the other, so both matter when comparing.

Neglectedness

N

How much of a difference would more resources make? Many important problems already receive substantial attention and funding, so each additional person or dollar tends to have less impact than it could if it was directed to an overlooked problem instead.

Tractability

T

How likely is it that the problem can be improved or solved? A problem is tractable if there are proven, cost-effective ways to address it, or if it seems likely that more research and funding could help us to identify undiscovered solutions.

The ITN framework

A framework for estimating the value of allocating marginal resources to solving a problem.

Key cause areas

Weighing importance, neglectedness, and tractability doesn’t give a single answer, but this framework can often point people toward some areas more than others. People in the effective altruism movement work on a range of causes and problems. Some of the most commonly prioritized areas are highlighted below, though people work on many others as well.

Global health and development

Each year, five million children die, mostly from preventable or treatable illnesses. Hundreds of millions more suffer from diseases stemming from extreme poverty, which affects over 800 million people. Cost-effective, proven solutions can save lives and stop a lot of suffering.

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Animal welfare

Billions of land animals and trillions of other animals are farmed each year. Most are held in poor conditions on factory farms. Wild animals also face unique threats to their wellbeing stemming from humans, disease, predation, hunger, and the elements. Little funding goes to animal welfare, which means extra effort might make a real difference.

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AI Safety

As artificial intelligence advances rapidly, there is increasing concern about unintended consequences. Bad actors could misuse AI for destructive ends, or humans could lose control of the technology altogether, posing potential existential risks. The field working to keep AI safe and beneficial is tiny compared to the number of people working to build it.

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Global catastrophic risk

Wide-scale risks like pandemics (natural or engineered), climate change, nuclear war, and threats from emerging technologies could derail humanity’s future. The best way to reduce these risks isn’t always clear, but successful efforts could protect trillions of future lives.

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How can we know if our priorities are right?

Prioritization is a continual process. Priorities can and should change as new evidence comes in, situations shift, and some problems attract more attention and funding. Work guided by the principles of effective altruism has directed billions of dollars to effective charities, founded new organizations, and shaped thousands of careers tackling pressing problems.

See examples of the impact

FAQs

Have another question about cause prioritization? Read answers to the questions people ask most, or explore the full FAQs.

Read the full FAQs page

Causeprioritization

Why prioritize?

How prioritization works

Key cause areas

Global health and development

Animal welfare

AI Safety

Global catastrophic risk

How can we know if our priorities are right?

FAQs

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