The Nonlinear Library EA - Focus group study of Non-Western EAs' experiences with Western EAs by Yi-Yang
Jul 25, 2024
07:38
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: Focus group study of Non-Western EAs' experiences with Western EAs, published by Yi-Yang on July 25, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Summary
What are my goals? And what did I find?
1. Are cross cultural interactions (CCIs) in EA even an issue for non-Western EAs who attended the retreat?
1. It's more likely than not that they had experienced at least one mildly-to-moderately bad interaction. These are usually more subtle and unintentional.
2. It's very unlikely that they had experienced an extremely bad interaction.
3. It's very likely that their interactions are mostly positive.
2. How widespread is it?
1. Uncertain, but probably yes.
Methodology
I thought a retreat that happened before EAGxPhilippines was a good opportunity to talk to a bunch of non-Western EAs, so I ran a focus group session as a way to solicit people's experiences of CCIs in EA settings.
The rules I enforced during that time were:
To use Chatham house rule when talking about the session to others
To keep our shared notes anonymised
To differentiate between purely factual observations (e.g., I see this person doing that) and interpretations of these observations (e.g., I think they are bad)
Results
Negative experiences
* indicates that I was the one who initially shared the experience, and hence may be biassed to get people to talk more about it.
Experiences
Supporting details
* EAs in "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures" [e.g., non-Western] have to put much more effort to be included in spaces where EAs in "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" [e.g., Western] occupy. OTOH, EAs in "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" have to put much less effort to be included in spaces where "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures" occupy.
3 people gave supporting anecdotal evidence.
"In a conference, I noticed EAs from 'low status cultures' weren't invited to hang out. OTOH, folks from 'high status cultures' were doing their own thing and not being super inclusive."
"Someone from country X told me their effort is double or maybe triple to join events, book 1-1s, etc"
"Everyone but me [in a group] was invited to an after-conference party. I suspect it's because I'm a POC."
* EAs from "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" hijacking (probably unintentionally) norms in spaces that belong to EAs from "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures"
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
1 person gave counter anecdotal evidence
Didn't really see people hijack conversations that much, but they have to sometimes push people to speak up more due to lack of comfort in speaking in other languages.
1 person gave a different hypothesis
Different cultures have different wait times to fill the silence: some are longer and some are shorter. After telling people about this, they give other people more wait time.
EAs usually find the opportunity cost of travelling to far away conferences very high. This makes EAs in far away countries less likely to interact with other EAs in other parts of the world.
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
Pressure to move to an EA hub.
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence.
"In many EA forms they ask how willing you are to move to different hubs for work. But many people like myself aren't willing to uproot their entire lives. Maybe there should be more effort to have work that is remote-friendly, or time zone-friendly."
Cause prioritisation done by folks are influenced by their location
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
"If you live somewhere without AI safety jobs, you're much more unlikely to pursue it."
1 person disagreed
"I tend to separate out cause prio and personal fit. So I do the cause prio separately, and then look into what fits me."
Folks in Asia think they're not a great fit for EA if they're not working on AI safety
1 person gave supporting anecd...
Summary
What are my goals? And what did I find?
1. Are cross cultural interactions (CCIs) in EA even an issue for non-Western EAs who attended the retreat?
1. It's more likely than not that they had experienced at least one mildly-to-moderately bad interaction. These are usually more subtle and unintentional.
2. It's very unlikely that they had experienced an extremely bad interaction.
3. It's very likely that their interactions are mostly positive.
2. How widespread is it?
1. Uncertain, but probably yes.
Methodology
I thought a retreat that happened before EAGxPhilippines was a good opportunity to talk to a bunch of non-Western EAs, so I ran a focus group session as a way to solicit people's experiences of CCIs in EA settings.
The rules I enforced during that time were:
To use Chatham house rule when talking about the session to others
To keep our shared notes anonymised
To differentiate between purely factual observations (e.g., I see this person doing that) and interpretations of these observations (e.g., I think they are bad)
Results
Negative experiences
* indicates that I was the one who initially shared the experience, and hence may be biassed to get people to talk more about it.
Experiences
Supporting details
* EAs in "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures" [e.g., non-Western] have to put much more effort to be included in spaces where EAs in "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" [e.g., Western] occupy. OTOH, EAs in "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" have to put much less effort to be included in spaces where "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures" occupy.
3 people gave supporting anecdotal evidence.
"In a conference, I noticed EAs from 'low status cultures' weren't invited to hang out. OTOH, folks from 'high status cultures' were doing their own thing and not being super inclusive."
"Someone from country X told me their effort is double or maybe triple to join events, book 1-1s, etc"
"Everyone but me [in a group] was invited to an after-conference party. I suspect it's because I'm a POC."
* EAs from "perceived-to-be-higher-status-cultures" hijacking (probably unintentionally) norms in spaces that belong to EAs from "perceived-to-be-lower-status-cultures"
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
1 person gave counter anecdotal evidence
Didn't really see people hijack conversations that much, but they have to sometimes push people to speak up more due to lack of comfort in speaking in other languages.
1 person gave a different hypothesis
Different cultures have different wait times to fill the silence: some are longer and some are shorter. After telling people about this, they give other people more wait time.
EAs usually find the opportunity cost of travelling to far away conferences very high. This makes EAs in far away countries less likely to interact with other EAs in other parts of the world.
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
Pressure to move to an EA hub.
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence.
"In many EA forms they ask how willing you are to move to different hubs for work. But many people like myself aren't willing to uproot their entire lives. Maybe there should be more effort to have work that is remote-friendly, or time zone-friendly."
Cause prioritisation done by folks are influenced by their location
1 person gave supporting anecdotal evidence
"If you live somewhere without AI safety jobs, you're much more unlikely to pursue it."
1 person disagreed
"I tend to separate out cause prio and personal fit. So I do the cause prio separately, and then look into what fits me."
Folks in Asia think they're not a great fit for EA if they're not working on AI safety
1 person gave supporting anecd...