I think in the eyes of many (including substantial fraction of the public) participating in such an investigation will be seen as importantly heroic. I think it’s wrong to assume that people cannot reward and understand the difficulty of such a choice, and cannot assign respect appropriately.
I think this would significantly depend on what the investigation ultimately showed. It would probably be hard for the average EA reader (much less a member of the general public) to reliably estimate how much personal stress, risk, cost, etc. a cooperator bore, and thus how much respect we should assign for their choice. I think many people would use the outcome as a rough proxy. If the investigation revealed only fairly-well-known structural problems plus bad judgment by a few individuals, then people may not appreciate how much of a burden it was to work with a thorough, broad-scope investigation that went down many paths that ultimately ended up being unfruitful.
I think in the eyes of many (including substantial fraction of the public) participating in such an investigation will be seen as importantly heroic. I think it’s wrong to assume that people cannot reward and understand the difficulty of such a choice, and cannot assign respect appropriately.
I think this would significantly depend on what the investigation ultimately showed. It would probably be hard for the average EA reader (much less a member of the general public) to reliably estimate how much personal stress, risk, cost, etc. a cooperator bore, and thus how much respect we should assign for their choice. I think many people would use the outcome as a rough proxy. If the investigation revealed only fairly-well-known structural problems plus bad judgment by a few individuals, then people may not appreciate how much of a burden it was to work with a thorough, broad-scope investigation that went down many paths that ultimately ended up being unfruitful.