Thanks, Michael, for continuing to push forward on this important front!
Another reason that mental health interventions seem promising: improving someone’s mental health may increase their ability to help to others. This could create large indirect impacts, where people who’s mental health improves are able to bring their newly unlocked energy to bear on their own altruistic efforts (which impact other people, who perhaps also go on to help others in a cascade of altruism).
This argument assumes that people tend to grow (at least somewhat) more altruistic as they become happier. This has been true in my experience & observations; I’m not sure how far it generalizes.
Yes, I had a few paragraphs on the potential indirect effects of treating mental health but decided to cut them out at last moment as (a) I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in them and (b) the whole analysis is just extremely handwavey.
It’s possible that someone could think focusing on mental health/happiness now could have very long-run effects and would be justified primarily on the impact it would have to future people. This also applies to bednets, economic development etc. and it seems very hard to sensibly compare these things. My hunch is that if someone was taking this angle they would do more good by trying to get governments to measure policies by their SWB impact, rather than by treating more people for depression through developing world micro-interventions.
Analogous “altruism cascade” arguments could be made for interventions like bed nets & GiveDirectly, though my intuition is that the cascade would be stronger for mental health interventions as they more directly attack unhappiness. (Related GiveWell discussion on flow-through effects here.)
I don’t see analogous cascades coming out of x-risk prevention or fundamental philosophical research.
Thanks, Michael, for continuing to push forward on this important front!
Another reason that mental health interventions seem promising: improving someone’s mental health may increase their ability to help to others. This could create large indirect impacts, where people who’s mental health improves are able to bring their newly unlocked energy to bear on their own altruistic efforts (which impact other people, who perhaps also go on to help others in a cascade of altruism).
This argument assumes that people tend to grow (at least somewhat) more altruistic as they become happier. This has been true in my experience & observations; I’m not sure how far it generalizes.
Yes, I had a few paragraphs on the potential indirect effects of treating mental health but decided to cut them out at last moment as (a) I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in them and (b) the whole analysis is just extremely handwavey.
It’s possible that someone could think focusing on mental health/happiness now could have very long-run effects and would be justified primarily on the impact it would have to future people. This also applies to bednets, economic development etc. and it seems very hard to sensibly compare these things. My hunch is that if someone was taking this angle they would do more good by trying to get governments to measure policies by their SWB impact, rather than by treating more people for depression through developing world micro-interventions.
OTOH, while current mental health issues may prevent altruism, prior experiences of suffering may lead to increased empathy and compassion.
https://reducing-suffering.org/how-important-is-experiencing-suffering-for-caring-about-suffering/
Analogous “altruism cascade” arguments could be made for interventions like bed nets & GiveDirectly, though my intuition is that the cascade would be stronger for mental health interventions as they more directly attack unhappiness. (Related GiveWell discussion on flow-through effects here.)
I don’t see analogous cascades coming out of x-risk prevention or fundamental philosophical research.