I signed the pledge precisely so I could influence others; I probably should have mentioned that in the post. But I believe the effect here isn’t large enough to justify the way the pledge restricts me financially, and I would prefer not to have signed it.
People who doubt their dedication to doing good have a stronger case for signing the pledge, because it can help them keep themselves committed. Paradoxically, the people most likely to sign the pledge—people like thebestwecan and Rohin Shah in the comments, me, and many of my friends, who already have a strong commitment to doing good—are the people who least need to sign it. I believe that people like this (“dedicated EAs”) sign the pledge more often than they should and don’t do a sufficiently good job of considering arguments against signing.
By all means Giving What We Can should keep doing outreach and getting people to sign the pledge. But people who already spend a lot of time trying to maximize the good they do should carefully consider whether signing the pledge helps or hinders that goal rather than only thinking about the upsides.
Although there are dangers of having norms that dedicated EAs are less likely to pledge, because then not-pledging might become higher status in the community.
This is a good point; however, I would also like to point out that it could be the case that a majority of “dedicated donors” don’t end up taking the pledge, without this becoming a norm. The norm instead could be “each individual should think through themselves, giving their own unique situations, whether or not taking the pledge is likely to be valuable,” which could lead to a situation where “dedicated donors” tend not to take the pledge, but not necessarily to a situation where, if you are a “dedicated donor,” you are expected not to take the pledge.
(I am highly uncertain as to whether or not this is how norms work; that is to say, whether norms connecting a group of people and a certain action could refrain from developing even though a majority of that group of people take that action.)
I agree that the pledge is most useful for those who don’t have as strong a dedication. But I expect it is useful for the vast majority of EAs. According to the EA survey, less than half of EAs donate even 10% of their income. So I think we have a far greater incidence of people not taking the pledge when they should than the other way around, even in the EA community. If EAs start putting greater weight on potential problems from the pledge, I expect that would be a net negative across the community.
I signed the pledge precisely so I could influence others; I probably should have mentioned that in the post. But I believe the effect here isn’t large enough to justify the way the pledge restricts me financially, and I would prefer not to have signed it.
People who doubt their dedication to doing good have a stronger case for signing the pledge, because it can help them keep themselves committed. Paradoxically, the people most likely to sign the pledge—people like thebestwecan and Rohin Shah in the comments, me, and many of my friends, who already have a strong commitment to doing good—are the people who least need to sign it. I believe that people like this (“dedicated EAs”) sign the pledge more often than they should and don’t do a sufficiently good job of considering arguments against signing.
By all means Giving What We Can should keep doing outreach and getting people to sign the pledge. But people who already spend a lot of time trying to maximize the good they do should carefully consider whether signing the pledge helps or hinders that goal rather than only thinking about the upsides.
Although there are dangers of having norms that dedicated EAs are less likely to pledge, because then not-pledging might become higher status in the community.
This is a good point; however, I would also like to point out that it could be the case that a majority of “dedicated donors” don’t end up taking the pledge, without this becoming a norm. The norm instead could be “each individual should think through themselves, giving their own unique situations, whether or not taking the pledge is likely to be valuable,” which could lead to a situation where “dedicated donors” tend not to take the pledge, but not necessarily to a situation where, if you are a “dedicated donor,” you are expected not to take the pledge.
(I am highly uncertain as to whether or not this is how norms work; that is to say, whether norms connecting a group of people and a certain action could refrain from developing even though a majority of that group of people take that action.)
I agree that the pledge is most useful for those who don’t have as strong a dedication. But I expect it is useful for the vast majority of EAs. According to the EA survey, less than half of EAs donate even 10% of their income. So I think we have a far greater incidence of people not taking the pledge when they should than the other way around, even in the EA community. If EAs start putting greater weight on potential problems from the pledge, I expect that would be a net negative across the community.