Key takeaways:

• We estimate awareness of EA among US adults to be low - <1% when assessed stringently and 2% permissively - although 12% claim awareness of the term.
• We found demographic variation with respect to awareness of EA:
  • Relatively higher awareness was found among those with high educational attainment, those aged between 25-44, as well as those with higher household incomes.
  • Men had higher awareness than women.
  • Awareness tended to be lower among Black/African American respondents relative to White/Caucasian and Asian/Asian American respondents.
• Sentiment towards EA among those who had heard of it was positive (51% positive vs. 38% negative among those stringently aware, and 70% positive, vs. 22% negative among those permissively aware).
• Sentiment towards core ideas of EA among those who had not heard of it was also highly positive (64% positive vs. 9% negative).
• Awareness of EA-associated organizations and people (e.g., GiveWell, Will MacAskill) was generally very low - only organizations or people related to EA but which were also major companies (OpenAI) or general public figures (Sam Harris) reached awareness levels greater than 10%

The results presented here are based upon the responses of 4,890 US adults^[1], who completed the Pulse survey between July and September 2024. The full report can be accessed on our website or as a PDF, which includes more detailed methodological and background information.

Population level estimation

Our estimates for the number of people who have ‘heard of EA’ have multiple thresholds. The ‘Claim’ level is simply the percentage of people who would be expected to pick the term as something they have heard of from the list of terms. However, we know this to be a substantial overestimate, likely due to people wrongly assuming they have heard of the term, or claiming they have on the basis of knowing the constituent words (see below, for example, where 8% of people claim to have heard of the invented term ‘Globally Neutral Advocacy’).

Upon selecting Effective Altruism from the list of terms, people were asked to indicate whether they thought they had at least a basic understanding of what it means. If so, they were required to provide a brief explanation of their understanding of the term. Permissive and Stringent levels of awareness are based on these explanations. The Stringent level was reached when the respondent unambiguously referred to one or more of the core ideas of EA, such as maximizing the amount of good done, and doing so through charity or careers, or referring to figures associated with the EA movement (including reference to scandals or controversial figures). These responses were also assessed for copy-pasted/paraphrased definitions, which were not counted. The Permissive level was reached if the respondent was alluding to some core ideas, but with lower specificity than the stringent level. Note that the estimate for the percentage of people reaching the Permissive level includes both those who reached the Permissive and who reached the Stringent levels, whereas, Stringent - being a higher level of attainment - only includes those who reached the Stringent level.

Although we estimate that 12% of US adults might claim to be aware of Effective Altruism, our permissive estimate for awareness of Effective Altruism is 1-2% of US adults, and less than 1% for stringent assessment. These numbers are similar to previous assessments we’ve conducted among US adults, and suggest that awareness of EA does not appear to have reliably increased among the general population since the crash of FTX.

Demographic subgroup estimates

Estimates of awareness in demographic subgroups provide additional information about how the concept of Effective Altruism permeates across different social and demographic groups. Outreach in the Effective Altruism community has typically been targeted towards younger and more highly educated individuals. This is borne out in patterns of awareness across subgroups, with awareness of Effective Altruism being highest among those who have completed the highest levels of education, as well as peaking in the 25-34 or 35-44 year old age groups.

Several other demographic trends are apparent. Awareness of Effective Altruism was higher among respondents with higher household incomes, as well as among Male respondents relative to Female respondents.

Awareness of Effective Altruism also tended to be lower among Black or African American respondents relative to White or Caucasian and Asian or Asian American respondents, although there was considerable uncertainty around these estimates.

Regarding Political Party affiliation, we observed a slight tendency for Republican respondents to be less likely to have heard of Effective Altruism than Democrat and Independent respondents.

While these demographic breakdowns convey some sense of the variation across different social and demographic groups, it should be highlighted that awareness among very niche populations may be substantially higher than the estimates provided here. For example, we might expect young people working in Silicon Valley to be substantially more likely to have heard of Effective altruism (due to geographic and intellectual overlap with major Effective altruism hubs and ideas, or via awareness of Sam Bankman-Fried). Likewise, people studying at elite educational institutions that have their own EA groups would be expected to have higher awareness than the generally highly educated (work we have conducted across elite universities in the US suggests awareness could on average be over 10%).

Attitudes towards effective altruism

In addition to awareness, we assessed attitudes towards Effective Altruism. Among those aware at the Permissive and Stringent levels, there was a tendency towards positive and very positive attitudes, with both these levels seeing over 50% of the respondents at least slightly positive towards Effective Altruism. However, a non-negligible minority of respondents felt negative towards Effective Altruism. Part of this may result from the association of Effective Altruism with recent scandals, such as the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which may be the only lens through which some people have encountered Effective Altruism. Nine respondents were flagged as alluding to FTX in their explanation of Effective Altruism, and all of these reported a negative sentiment. These respondents made up over half of the relatively small absolute number of people who expressed negative sentiment towards Effective Altruism, suggesting that FTX could be an important factor contributing to negative perceptions of the movement. Negative perceptions resulting from FTX may be especially important in understanding the relatively greater proportion of negative respondents among the stringently aware, as people who referenced FTX in the explanation of Effective Altruism were coded as meeting the stringent criteria.

Attitudes among those who have already heard of EA

Attitudes among those who have not heard of EA

At the end of the survey, those respondents who had not heard of Effective Altruism were presented with a definition of the term that focused on its core ideas, and asked to indicate how positively or negatively they felt about it:

“Effective altruism is a philosophy and a community. Effective altruists use reasoning and evidence to find the most effective ways of doing good, and then act upon what they find to try to improve the world. For example, assessing how much impact different charities have for every dollar donated, and then promoting the most cost-effective charities.

It mostly advocates for supporting charities working on global poverty, factory farming, or risks to the long term future, such as artificial intelligence.”

This allows for a population-level assessment of potential attitudes towards Effective Altruism, factoring out those who have already heard of the term. Again, attitudes were broadly positive. Relative to those who have encountered Effective Altruism, there was a greater preponderance of Neutral responses, and fewer Negative responses.

As we have suggested in previous work, responses could vary depending on exactly how Effective Altruism is framed.

It is of particular interest to understand, among those who do not know of EA, whether any particular demographic subgroups may be more or less receptive to the general principles. This can help advocates understand whether there is untapped potential among particular types of people. The figure below displays how different demographic subgroups break out in terms of Positive, Neutral, and Negative attitudes towards the formulation of EA presented above.

The results suggest a general tendency for younger and more highly educated US adults to have perceived the ideas of EA more positively, which aligns with seemingly successful outreach to these target subpopulations and their high relative awareness. There was also a difference in sentiment in terms of political views, with Democrats being more likely to provide a positive rating (73%) than either Independents (61%) or Republicans (59%).

However, compared with the lower awareness among Female (vs. Male) and Black or African American (vs. White or Caucasian and Asian or Asian American) respondents, there was remarkably little variation in terms of how positively the core concepts of EA were viewed.

Awareness of EA-related terms, organizations, and people

Terms

Besides Effective Altruism, we asked respondents about several other items. Longtermism and Effective giving were chosen as being relevant to Effective altruism. Other items function as reference points (e.g., relatively science-related or intellectual terms such as Evidence-based medicine) or as lures with which to gauge the likelihood of true awareness (e.g., Globally neutral advocacy is a made up term that, similarly to Effective altruism, people might be tempted to claim they know owing to recognizing the constituent words).

We can see that estimated awareness (or rather, likelihood of claiming awareness) of Longtermism is actually lower than for a lure (Globally Neutral Advocacy). We expect that, like with Effective altruism, true awareness would be much lower than the implied 5%. Effective giving reaches claimed awareness of 21%. Again, similarly to Effective altruism, we expect that many respondents would suggest a definition based upon ‘giving that is effective’, with a much smaller minority being aware of the core concepts of formally evaluating giving opportunities and prioritizing amongst them to maximize impact.

Organizations

As with awareness of EA-related terms, it is important to stress that awareness of organizations - especially niche ones - is likely lower than the percentages presented below. For example, even though we estimate only  around 1% of US adults would claim awareness of 80,000 Hours, fewer still passed a multiple choice question to select the option that most accurately characterized the organization.

For organizations and public figures, we’ve categorized some as EA-related. This does not imply any official affiliation between them and the Effective altruism community, nor endorsement from organizations/figures of Effective altruism, and vice versa. The term EA-related is used purely descriptively to indicate a general association (e.g., GiveWell is counted as EA-related because it uses reason and evidence to find and promote the most cost-effective charities, whereas OpenAI - along with current or former members of its executive suite - is counted as EA-related due to Effective altruism’s links with AI safety, and current or former board members reportedly motivated by EA principles).

Awareness of OpenAI was the highest of organizations associated with effective altruism. More people claimed awareness of FTX (the defunct cryptocurrency exchange whose CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, publicly promoted effective altruism) than claimed awareness of effective altruism itself, or of any definitely EA-aligned organizations such as GiveWell or Open Philanthropy.

Relative to major philanthropic organizations or charities such as the Gates Foundation or Doctors Without Borders, EA-aligned philanthropic and charitable organizations appeared to be little recognized.

People

Among figures with high involvement in the effective altruism community, only Peter Singer reached awareness levels even close to more well known public intellectuals such as Sam Harris or Jordan Peterson (though Sam Harris notably has promoted Effective altruism, and encouraged reason-driven charitable donations). In contrast, approximately 1 in 5 US adults were estimated to claim awareness of Sam Bankman-Fried. Figures such as Will MacAskill and Nick Bostrom, though widely recognized within effective altruist spheres, had claimed recognition at levels similar to a fake ‘lure’ (Jim Spacer) of only around 2%.

When considering the exact percentages, it should be borne in mind that, again, they represent claimed awareness, which could be cases of mistaken recognition. Despite this caveat, these awareness estimates suggest that effective altruism and its related organizations and figures remain quite niche in the general public consciousness of the US.

Rethink Priorities is a think-and-do tank dedicated to informing decisions made by high-impact organizations and funders across various cause areas. We invite you to explore our research database and stay updated on new work by subscribing to our newsletter.

1. ^{^}

   The exact sample size for each question may vary due to missing data or branching of the sample to see alternative questions.