OPIS Study on Human Suffering

[eagleswings]

Last autumn/winter we ran a survey to gather data on human suffering from a range of conditions and experiences, and you were kind enough to participate by reflecting on your own suffering and providing responses, for which we are grateful. Some of you gave detailed descriptions, all of which were read. We have now finished analysing the data and have written it up in a new post on the Effective Altruism Forum, which you can find here: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hTGScBoBDKwmAcGP6/how-to-quantify-global-human-suffering-results-from-opis-s We included some of the text descriptions, which convey a sense of what some of the suffering is like, beyond the numbers. Of course there was no identifying information disclosed. We plan to submit a reworked version to an academic journal, making the case for suffering metrics and for a larger survey that builds on what we learned from this first one. Our goal is for the prevention and alleviation of suffering, and especially severe and extreme suffering, to become a top priority of our governments at all levels. If you’re interested, you can also have a look at our recently published Compassionate Governance: A Strategic Guide to Preventing and Alleviating Global Suffering.

 

Many thanks again, and wishing you to be free of suffering,

Jonathan