Marcus Davis on founding and leading Rethink Priorities

Rethink Priorities (RP) is a global priorities research organization that has experienced significant growth, expanding its research areas and staff to address neglected but impactful issues. RP's research focuses on answering fundamental questions regarding moral weight, effective interventions, and improving decision-making within policy and philanthropy, primarily through think tank and consultancy work commissioned by organizations like Open Philanthropy.

Organizational Growth

• 00:01:30 Rethink Priorities has experienced rapid growth in staff size, from 10 people two years ago to 46 permanent staff and 12 fellows currently. This growth has led to a more hierarchical structure with managing managers and a focus on ensuring good operational processes and reporting chains across the organization.

Research Focus

• 00:03:09 RP's research focuses on three key questions: who matters morally, how to best help them, and how to improve helping them. The research aims to inform policymakers, philanthropic foundations, and other organizations to improve decision-making and make the world a better place, covering topics like animal welfare, AI governance, climate change, and global health.

Research Types

• 00:03:59 RP primarily engages in think tank and consultancy work, with the latter involving direct commissions from organizations with specific questions or problems. Think tank work focuses on issues believed to be important with a clear theory of change but without a direct commission. RP has transitioned away from foundational-driven research, which focuses on scientific inquiry without a particular end goal in mind.

Animal Welfare Research

• 00:14:34 RP's animal welfare research encompasses a variety of projects, including exploring invertebrate sentience, interspecies moral weight, and interventions for wild animals. Projects have included estimating the number of farmed and wild-caught shrimp, examining rodenticides and their welfare implications, and exploring the use of monitoring wild animal vocalisations to understand their welfare.

Aquatic Noise

• 00:20:15 RP research on aquatic noise has investigated the impact of oil exploration on marine life. The study highlighted that this activity can generate extremely loud sounds potentially harmful to various marine species, yet the extent of the problem and the effectiveness of potential interventions remain largely unknown. The study also explored the potential overlap with other areas of concern, like climate change or redundancies in exploration efforts.