I have a different reason for thinking this is true, which involves fewer numbers and more personal experience and intuition.
Having a high standard—either you make major changes in your life or your not an effective altruist—will probably fail because people aren’t used to or willing to make big, sudden changes in their lives. It’s hard to imagine donating half your income from the point of view of someone currently donating nothing; it’s much easier to imagine doing that if you’re already donating 20% or 30%. When I was first exposed to EA, I found it very weird and vaguely threatening, and I could definitely not have jumped from that state to earning to give. Not that I have since gone that far, but I do donate 10% and the idea of donating more is at least contemplatable. Even if you mostly care about the number of people who end up very highly committed, having low or medium standards gives people plausible first steps on a ladder towards that state.
As an analogy, take Catholics and nuns. There are many Catholics and very few nuns, and even fewer of those nuns were people who converted to Catholicism and then immediately became nuns. If there was no way to be Catholic except being a nun, the only people who could possibly be nuns would be the people who converted and then immediately became nuns.
Giving What We Can finds that the 10% bar is tough for people but not unimaginable. Certainly we shouldn’t be unfriendly to people who don’t do that—I’m not unfriendly even to people who don’t do anything to help strangers—but we could set it as the bar people should aspire to, and a bar most people in the community are achieving most of the time.
Yeah, it’s also a useful observation that when they talk to the general public, most charities ask for a small regular committment of funds, like $30 per month. If you’re asking people who already identify as effective altruists, it might make sense to ask for more but if you’re approaching new people, this would seem like a sensible starting point.
I have a different reason for thinking this is true, which involves fewer numbers and more personal experience and intuition.
Having a high standard—either you make major changes in your life or your not an effective altruist—will probably fail because people aren’t used to or willing to make big, sudden changes in their lives. It’s hard to imagine donating half your income from the point of view of someone currently donating nothing; it’s much easier to imagine doing that if you’re already donating 20% or 30%. When I was first exposed to EA, I found it very weird and vaguely threatening, and I could definitely not have jumped from that state to earning to give. Not that I have since gone that far, but I do donate 10% and the idea of donating more is at least contemplatable. Even if you mostly care about the number of people who end up very highly committed, having low or medium standards gives people plausible first steps on a ladder towards that state.
As an analogy, take Catholics and nuns. There are many Catholics and very few nuns, and even fewer of those nuns were people who converted to Catholicism and then immediately became nuns. If there was no way to be Catholic except being a nun, the only people who could possibly be nuns would be the people who converted and then immediately became nuns.
Giving What We Can finds that the 10% bar is tough for people but not unimaginable. Certainly we shouldn’t be unfriendly to people who don’t do that—I’m not unfriendly even to people who don’t do anything to help strangers—but we could set it as the bar people should aspire to, and a bar most people in the community are achieving most of the time.
Yeah, it’s also a useful observation that when they talk to the general public, most charities ask for a small regular committment of funds, like $30 per month. If you’re asking people who already identify as effective altruists, it might make sense to ask for more but if you’re approaching new people, this would seem like a sensible starting point.