The psychology of (in)effective altruism

Abstract

Most donors value personal preference over effectiveness when making charitable decisions, and thus tend to neglect the substantial variation in charity effectiveness. Consequently, the impact of charitable giving can be significantly increased by redirecting donations to more effective charities. There are a number of motivational and epistemic obstacles that prevent people from doing this. Motivational obstacles include the tendency to view charitable giving as a matter of personal preference and the narrow affective motivations that drive much giving. Epistemic obstacles include a lack of awareness of the variation in charity effectiveness, a misunderstanding of quantitative concepts and cost-effectiveness, and an aversion to charities with high administrative costs. Informed interventions can overcome these obstacles, potentially leading to significant increases in the social benefit resulting from charitable giving. – AI-generated abstract.