“Should EA Introductions Be More Transparent About the State of Cause Prioritization?” by Jian Xin Lim🔹

Epistemic Status: I think this is a real issue, and think the importance of the issue varies significantly by introductory experience/facilitator.

TLDR

• EA introductions present the movement as cause-neutral, but newcomers discover that most funding and opportunities actually focus on longtermism (especially biosecurity and AI)
• This creates a "bait and switch" problem where people join expecting balanced cause prioritization but find stark funding hierarchies
• The solution is honest upfront communication about EA's current priorities rather than pretending to be more cause-neutral than we actually are
• We should update intro fellowship curricula to include transparent data about funding distribution and encourage open discussion about whether EA's shift toward longtermism represents rational updating or cultural bias

1. The Problem (Personal Experience)

In EA Bath, we have a group member, who's exactly the kind of person you'd want in EA - agentic, impact-minded, thoughtful about doing good. They had her [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) TLDR

(01:03) 1. The Problem (Personal Experience)

(02:49) 2. The Evidence

(03:02) Conference and organisational focus

(03:45) The engagement effect

(04:22) Community dissatisfaction

(04:44) Ideological tendencies

(05:18) Career advice concentration

(06:05) 3. Why This Matters + What Honest Introductions Could Look Like

(06:17) The bait and switch problem

(07:22) What honest introductions could look like

(08:28) A concrete, scalable approach - Updating the Intro Fellowship

(09:37) 4. Objections & Responses

(09:40) This creates selection bias for people who already agree with EA priorities

(10:21) There isnt time for this level of nuance

(10:56) This will put people off who might otherwise contribute

(11:21) We cant possibly mention every cause area people might care about

(11:50) 5. Conclusion

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First published:
May 29th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FwybRtbHyym7e3Xus/should-ea-introductions-be-more-transparent-about-the-state

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.