The Nonlinear Library EA - A top-effective public outreach: small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning by Stijn
Aug 13, 2024
15:26
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: A top-effective public outreach: small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning, published by Stijn on August 13, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
For two decades, I did a lot of public outreach: talking with people from the broad or general public (on the streets,…) to persuade them to do something good. Now I believe that most of such public outreach is not so effective, with one or a few exceptions. Here I want to give a concrete example of a public outreach that I believe to be one of the most cost-effective, generating the highest impact at the lowest costs: small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning.
This involves asking specific questions to make people think more deeply about the welfare of (small) animals used for food in order to encourage them to reduce their consumption of animal products (primarily from small animals such as chickens, fish and shrimp). I'll first discuss why I think this is a top-effective strategy, and then present a specific example of a list of questions that I ask people on the streets.
Why is small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning a top-effective public outreach?
The term 'small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning' has three parts. First, the focus area or problem that we want to tackle: the suffering and rights violations of small farmed animals. Second, the objective or personal choice that we want people to make: a behavior change that involves reducing the consumption of specific food products. Third, the method or approach that we want to apply: conversations with people on the street where we ask them deep questions.
Concerning the focus area: probably the largest contributor to global suffering and loss of welfare, is the farming of small animals such as chickens, fish and shrimp. Evidence from a survey shows that most people already have opinions and judgments that lead to this conclusion. This focus area is also closely connected to the public, because it is the result of the personal behavior (consumption choice) of members of the public. Consuming animal products is not far from their bed.
That makes it a good candidate for public outreach.
Concerning the objective: there are many things that we can ask people on the streets to do. We can ask them to reduce eating some products, to boycott some companies, to reduce flying, to lower the personal carbon footprint, to install solar panels, to donate blood, to sign petitions, to join protest marches, to donate to charities, to switch their careers towards high-impact jobs, to vote for the best political candidates, and many more.
I think most of these objectives are not so effective for public outreach.
Boycotting a company, flying less, lowering one's personal carbon footprint, installing solar panels and donating blood have a relatively low impact compared to reducing meat consumption.
Public outreach to sign petitions and join protest marches requires coordination: their effectiveness depends on what other people do. If other people do not collect signatures, you will end up with a petition that has only a few signatures and hence a low impact. Also, petitions and protest marches have a low success rate. They can have a high impact when successful, but the probability is high that they achieve nothing.
That means these strategies are less suitable for public outreachers who have a difference making risk-aversion, i.e. a preference for actions that are more likely to make a difference.
Donating to top-effective charities does have a huge impact, but based on my experience in public fundraising (I worked as a charity fundraiser for a few months) and deep questioning, I think this objective is less suitable for deep questioning public outreach. I didn't find a good conversation approach, with the right questions to ask, that motivates people ...
For two decades, I did a lot of public outreach: talking with people from the broad or general public (on the streets,…) to persuade them to do something good. Now I believe that most of such public outreach is not so effective, with one or a few exceptions. Here I want to give a concrete example of a public outreach that I believe to be one of the most cost-effective, generating the highest impact at the lowest costs: small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning.
This involves asking specific questions to make people think more deeply about the welfare of (small) animals used for food in order to encourage them to reduce their consumption of animal products (primarily from small animals such as chickens, fish and shrimp). I'll first discuss why I think this is a top-effective strategy, and then present a specific example of a list of questions that I ask people on the streets.
Why is small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning a top-effective public outreach?
The term 'small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning' has three parts. First, the focus area or problem that we want to tackle: the suffering and rights violations of small farmed animals. Second, the objective or personal choice that we want people to make: a behavior change that involves reducing the consumption of specific food products. Third, the method or approach that we want to apply: conversations with people on the street where we ask them deep questions.
Concerning the focus area: probably the largest contributor to global suffering and loss of welfare, is the farming of small animals such as chickens, fish and shrimp. Evidence from a survey shows that most people already have opinions and judgments that lead to this conclusion. This focus area is also closely connected to the public, because it is the result of the personal behavior (consumption choice) of members of the public. Consuming animal products is not far from their bed.
That makes it a good candidate for public outreach.
Concerning the objective: there are many things that we can ask people on the streets to do. We can ask them to reduce eating some products, to boycott some companies, to reduce flying, to lower the personal carbon footprint, to install solar panels, to donate blood, to sign petitions, to join protest marches, to donate to charities, to switch their careers towards high-impact jobs, to vote for the best political candidates, and many more.
I think most of these objectives are not so effective for public outreach.
Boycotting a company, flying less, lowering one's personal carbon footprint, installing solar panels and donating blood have a relatively low impact compared to reducing meat consumption.
Public outreach to sign petitions and join protest marches requires coordination: their effectiveness depends on what other people do. If other people do not collect signatures, you will end up with a petition that has only a few signatures and hence a low impact. Also, petitions and protest marches have a low success rate. They can have a high impact when successful, but the probability is high that they achieve nothing.
That means these strategies are less suitable for public outreachers who have a difference making risk-aversion, i.e. a preference for actions that are more likely to make a difference.
Donating to top-effective charities does have a huge impact, but based on my experience in public fundraising (I worked as a charity fundraiser for a few months) and deep questioning, I think this objective is less suitable for deep questioning public outreach. I didn't find a good conversation approach, with the right questions to ask, that motivates people ...