Giving Compass' Take:

• In this 80,000 Hours podcast, entrepreneur Spencer Greenberg discusses the science research behind a lot of social impact efforts, and how it can be improved.

• This makes a great case for evidence-based programs and more thoughtful survey-taking. Are we applying the right methods to achieving our philanthropic goals?

• Here's how radical researchers changed our world.

What is the best, state-of-the-art therapy for depression? Do most meat eaters think it’s wrong to hurt animals? How likely do Americans think climate change is to cause human extinction? How do we make academics more intellectually honest, so we can actually trust their findings? How can we speed up social science research 10-fold? Do most startups improve the world, or make it worse? Why is research in top journals less reliable?

If you’re interested in these questions, this interview is for you.

A scientist, entrepreneur, writer and mathematician, Spencer Greenberg is constantly working to create tools to speed up and improve research and critical thinking. These include:

  • Rapid public opinion surveys — which he has used to learn public opinion on animal consciousness, farm animal welfare, the impact of developing world charities and the likelihood of extinction by various different means;
  • Tools to enable social science research to be run en masse very cheaply by anyone;
  • ClearerThinking.org, a highly popular site for improving people’s judgement and decision-making;
  • Ways to transform data analysis methods to ensure that papers only show true findings;
  • Ways to decide which research projects are actually worth pursuing.

 

In this episode of the show, Spencer discusses all of these and more.

Listen to the podcast about social science research by Robert Wiblin on 80000hours.org