“Framing EA: ‘Doing Good Better’ Did Worse” by Rethink Priorities, David_Moss

<p><strong> Summary</strong></p><ul> <li> As part of our ongoing work to study how to best frame EA, we experimentally tested different phrases and sentences that CEA were&nbsp;considering using on&nbsp;effectivealtruism.org.</li></ul><p> Doing Good Better taglines</p><ul> <li> We observed a consistent pattern where taglines that included the phrase ‘do[ing] good better’ received less support from respondents and inspired less interest in learning about EA.</li><li> We replicated these results in a second experiment, where we confirmed that taglines referring to “do[ing] good better” performed less well than those referring to “do[ing] the most good”.</li></ul><p> Nouns and sentences</p><ul> <li> Nouns: The effect of using different nouns to refer to EA was small, but referring to EA as a ‘philosophy’ or ‘movement’&nbsp;inspired the most curiosity compared to options including ‘project’ and ‘research field’.</li><li> Sentences: “Find the most effective ways to do good with your time, money, and career” and “Effective altruism asks the question of how we [...]</li></ul> <p>---</p><p><strong>Outline:</strong></p><p>(00:12) Summary</p><p>(01:23) Method</p><p>(02:18) Taglines (Study 1)</p><p>(03:40) Doing Good Better replication (Study 2)</p><p>(05:23) Sentences (Study 1)</p><p>(06:45) Nouns (Study 1)</p><p>(07:41) Effectiveness focus</p><p>(07:55) Conclusion</p><p>(08:56) Acknowledgments</p> <p>---</p> <p><b>First published:</b><br/> October 27th, 2025 </p> <p><b>Source:</b><br/> <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Y6zMpdwkkAQ8rF56w/framing-ea-doing-good-better-did-worse?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Y6zMpdwkkAQ8rF56w/framing-ea-doing-good-better-did-worse</a> </p> <p>---</p> <p>Narrated by <a href="https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p> <p>---</p><div style="max-width: 100%";><p><strong>Images from the article:</strong></p><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/QwYABYreipfuhwWmF/w4mrhpqszrsqtjqu9oge" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/QwYABYreipfuhwWmF/w4mrhpqszrsqtjqu9oge" alt=""Rethink Priorities" logo" style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/e44348c196548178d0b8bd0917881b0f6166624986cc8748.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/e44348c196548178d0b8bd0917881b0f6166624986cc8748.png" alt="Graph showing ratings of different Effective Altruism (EA) learning-focused sentences." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/216430d9ba7fb7c0b45396c3e760d39ade329ba584e7f6e5.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/216430d9ba7fb7c0b45396c3e760d39ade329ba584e7f6e5.png" alt="Graph showing effectiveness ratings of different EA-related taglines, with confidence intervals." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/ceb2abffcd615c6194c848e118c8ff3387604bc67952b93b.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/ceb2abffcd615c6194c848e118c8ff3387604bc67952b93b.png" alt="Chart showing ratings of different taglines about helping others and doing good." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/dda98e43d47159f6f557f0da213ba3782abfb57d9c7df320.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/dda98e43d47159f6f557f0da213ba3782abfb57d9c7df320.png" alt="Line graph comparing support ratings between "doing good better" vs "doing the most good"" style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/5e5d446629bfb261edaad739ab75a02b264d6e47640e6188.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/5e5d446629bfb261edaad739ab75a02b264d6e47640e6188.png" alt="Bar graph showing "Extent to which different noun framings inspire learning about EA"" style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/f521c193f04f140759626e4a0ad762f35920f638acfa2855.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/f521c193f04f140759626e4a0ad762f35920f638acfa2855.png" alt="Graph showing "Extent to which sentence is supported" with five effectiveness ratings." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/e5b3b30f41c7739934d18779729f5c1feec54a27d1a86334.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/cgyAlfpLFBBiEjoXacnz/images/e5b3b30f41c7739934d18779729f5c1feec54a27d1a86334.png" alt="Line graph comparing "Evidence based way" vs "Framework" for EA tagline framings. The graph shows two different framing approaches ("Do[ing] good better" and "Do[ing] the most good") across these categories, with confidence intervals indicated by vertical bars." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><p><em>Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try <a href="https://pocketcasts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Pocket Casts</a>, or another podcast app.</em></p></div>