That’s true, but most Charity Science fundraising experiments are unusual in that their success or failure is relatively easy to determine (by design rather than by accident). We can generally look at direct, immediate, counterfactually-adjusted money moved and check them against the prespecified criteria for success or failure. That’s (unavoidably) harder to do for many other meta activities.
So then my argument only applies to people who prefer to donate to meta-charities that have demonstrable evidence that they actually direct donations to effective object-level causes. This is what I do but I may have been overestimating how many people operate this way.
Sounds like you’re mainly interested in projects only one meta-level above. But as the number of projects with 2+ meta-levels increases, this may get harder.
That’s true, but most Charity Science fundraising experiments are unusual in that their success or failure is relatively easy to determine (by design rather than by accident). We can generally look at direct, immediate, counterfactually-adjusted money moved and check them against the prespecified criteria for success or failure. That’s (unavoidably) harder to do for many other meta activities.
So then my argument only applies to people who prefer to donate to meta-charities that have demonstrable evidence that they actually direct donations to effective object-level causes. This is what I do but I may have been overestimating how many people operate this way.
Sounds like you’re mainly interested in projects only one meta-level above. But as the number of projects with 2+ meta-levels increases, this may get harder.