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: EA Survey 2019 Series: Community Information , published by David_Moss on the LessWrong. Summary More respondents’ level of interest in EA increased over the last year (43%) than decreased (18%). The most common reasons for interest increasing were local EA groups (14%), the respondent being new to EA (12%), the local EA community more broadly (10%), or career change (10%). The most common reasons for interest decreasing were people being too busy (18%), a perceived mismatch between the person’s cause preferences with that of the overall EA community (12%), or finding diminishing returns from involvement in EA (10%). The most commonly cited barriers to further involvement in EA were lack of job opportunities that were a good fit (29%), no close friends in EA (28%), and it being too hard to get an EA job (23%). The main ways people wanted to become more involved in EA were an EA-aligned career (58%), donating more (55%), socialising with EAs (44%), and participating in more local EA events (43%). The factors most often cited as important for retaining people in EA were personal contacts (43%), local EA groups (27%), and reading SlateStarCodex (21%). Among those who knew of someone who had been involved in EA but then became disengaged (27%), the most commonly cited reasons were lack of interest in EA (31%), bad experiences with other EAs (30%), lack of opportunities to implement effective altruism in their lives (28%), and lack of friends or community interested in EA (25%). We found significant gender differences and differences between low/high engagement EAs in what they selected as barriers to further involvement in EA and as important for their retention in EA, however we found few signs of differences between white/non-white EAs. Introduction The 2019 EA Survey included a number of new questions concerning experiences of the EA community, many of which were requested by the Centre for Effective Altruism. Questions about these topics seem particularly likely to raise concerns about the representativeness of the survey sample, since individuals who have had particularly negative experiences of the EA community are plausibly less likely to take the EA Survey. Nevertheless, we think that this data provides important qualitative and quantitative information to the community. Changes in level of interest in EA Respondents were asked “In the last year, how would you say that your level of interest in effective altruism has changed?”. 1934 respondents answered this question. alt_text While the modal response by a large margin was “Stayed the same”, on the whole, we can see that more respondents’ level of interest increased (43%) than decreased (18%) over the last year. Naturally, as mentioned above, the fact that people whose interest has decreased may be less likely to take the survey is potentially a significant factor here. We examine predictors of change in interest in a later section of this post. Changes in level of interest in EA: Qualitative Data Respondents were also asked “If your level of interest in effective altruism has changed, please explain why (if possible).” 968 respondents answered this question (out of 1196 who indicated that their level of interest changed).[1] alt_text Among those who reported that their level of interest decreased, the most common reason given, by a wide margin, was that they had become increasingly busy (17.7%). This was followed by references to “cause preferences” (11.7%). These often alluded to EA being uninteresting if you didn’t share mainstream EA preferences and/or to frustration that EA had come to be dominated by a certain cause area. 9.7% were classified as mentioning “diminishing returns.” Such comments often suggested that respondents thought that they had already internalised or acted on the core EA lessons and ther...