The Cost of Social Science Research

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The cost to even get any kind of social science or medical research off the ground could really be discouraging people from pursuing important research that could benefit people. And maybe even they just don't consider doing particular things because they know that it's going to be such a pain to get it off to the ground and to get approval from all of the different committees that they'll need to consult. So every year, we're somewhat falling behind this counterfactual world where we had managed to reduce this cost, but we don't know by how much. It's not something that we realized that we could have had in alternative world.

What are the best strategies for improving ourselves? How are line managers useful? Why does Rob prefer long-form content for the 80,000 Hours podcast? What are the sorts of things humans value and why? In what ways do research ethics considerations fail to achieve their stated objectives? Why are prediction markets useful?

Rob Wiblin is the Head of Research at 80,000 Hours where he investigates how people can do more good in the course of their career and produces a long-form interview show called the 80,000 Hours Podcast. He studied genetics and economics in Australia before moving to the UK to help develop the emerging field of effective altruism. You can learn more about Rob at robwiblin.com, learn more about his research work at 80000hours.org, and follow him on social media at @robertwiblin.

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