The Good and Bad of Effective Altruism

Effective Altruism (EA) concerns itself with answering the question: how can we use our resources to help others the most?

As Effective Altruists, we want to give in the manner that will benefit the most people by the largest amount.

Typically that means investing (money, skills, influence) in areas that are under-resourced, that wouldn’t otherwise receive investment and which provide a high-degree of certainty that the good will happen.

This approach to giving has some very strong advantages as well as several notable disadvantages:

Advantages

• More good for the same investment — arguably 100x increase in altruistic ROI. We know that the best charities are hundreds of times more effective at improving lives than merely good charities; donating to these charities can hugely increase the amount of good that a donation can do.
• Less suffering — tackling the most problematic problems upfront will result in the least human suffering.
• Highlighting fact-based interventions can help to recruit rational donators who may previously have been reluctant to donate due to uncertainty of the good that their donation will do.
• Secondary effects such as bringing visibility to charity efficacy, thus encouraging charities to justify the efficacy of their operations (and not just their operational efficiency).

Disadvantages

• Some effective causes, that currently lack evidence may be neglected.
• Domestic efforts to serve those in need, may be neglected.
• Feedback from EA donations can be less tangible than donations to or volunteering at domestic charities, reducing the feel-good factor associated with altruism. This has the potential to reduce donations.
• Funding for advanced research funding for many (long-tail) diseases may decrease.
• Smaller charitable endeavours which key EA organisations lack the resources to assess may be neglected.
• Pursuing a career in a lucrative industry in order to be able to give more in the future (a tactic sometimes suggested in EA) may result in no future donations and potentially net negative if the chosen industry is a force for social harm. Dissuading people from offering their support for a given cause in favour of a more impactful one can be counterproductive, leading them to feel disillusioned about charitable giving.

The disadvantages of Effective Altruism are certainly valid concerns.

However, as effective altruists we believe in impact. That doing the most good is what is important, even if that may not necessarily be the approach that makes us feel best.

For further reading on Effective Altruism try the following books:

• Doing Good Better
• The Most Good you can Do
• The Life you can Save

For a more comprehensive overview of the key criticisms of Effective Altruism see here:

• [Criticism of effective altruism — EA Wiki](Criticism of effective altruism)

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